Bulletproof Heart
by Mz Hxde
Summary: Rewrite of "Crimson Kind of Love"
1. Chapter 1

**I gotta bulletproof heart**

**You gotta hollow point smile**

**We had our run away scarves,**

**Got a photograph dream on the getaway mile**

**Let's blow a hole in this town**

**And do our talking with the laser beam.**

**Coming out of this place**

**In a bullet's embrace**

**Then we'll do it again**

**hr**

**Name: **Aayma Takahashi

**Age: **23

**Appearance: ** long red hair, originally green eyes now infused with mako, quite pale, 5'10

**Other: **Orphaned young Aya grew up in the slums of Midgar until she was 'picked up' at age 13 by a host club manager and became the top earner in the Host Club she worked in.

When she was 16 Aya's contract was bought by a gang leader and she became the Number one member of the gang and trusted absolutely by the leader.

When Aya was 18 Shin Ra was recruiting SOLDIERs so she signed up and got promoted right to the top almost instantly. While with SOLDIER Aya became fast friends with Zack and Cloud and by proxy Sephiroth who was their commanding officer.

While out one evening on leave Aya met Rufus Shin Ra and not knowing who he was and they went on a bar crawl together. When they woke the next day in the Host Club Aya used to work at with the Turks coming to pick Rufus up Aya realised who he was and they promised to go out again soon after that night Rufus always called Aya when he needed to escape.

On a mission to Nibelheim after the four of them split up Sephiroth found information relating to Jenova and the horrible experiments that made him Sephiroth turned on Aya and cut her with his Masume from her right collar bone down her chest and past her ribs.

After Zack and Cloud found Aya they called Shin Ra and Rufus automatically got Professor Hojo, Shin Ra's top scientist and doctor to treat Aya but Hojo had different ideas for Aya. When she was inducted into SOLDIER Aya received an injection of Jenova cells and the cells took to her body better than it did any other SOLDIER except Sephiroth and so Hojo had decided he would take it upon himself to make Aya exactly like Sephiroth but she managed to escape with Cloud and Zack but Zack sacrificed himself for Aya and Cloud's safety.

Aya then joined AVALANCHE with Cloud and worked to bring down Shin Ra after what they'd done. Rufus had begged Aya to stop and join Shin Ra but she refused.

After the fall of Shin Ra Aya worked for Tifa in Seventh Heaven for a while until Tseng came to see her saying Rufus wanted to see her. Aya agreed and after talking to Rufus she agreed to be his personal bodyguard/secretary.

So now she works for Rufus and lives part time in the new Shin Ra building and part time in Seventh Heaven working the bar or taking calls for the delivery service.


	2. Delivery Girl

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Easy come**

**Easy go**

**That's just how you live**

**Oh **

**Take **

**Take **

**Take it all**

**But you never give**

**

* * *

**

_#Hello, Hello baby you called I can't hear a thing! I have got no service in the club you see, see#_

I groaned and slid my hand out of my bed groping around for my phone,

"Hello?"

_"Aya good you're up" _Rufus said

"Rufus, what time is it?"

_"It's midday"_

"And you're calling why?" I still hadn't opened my eyes I was waiting for what Rufus had to say before I even thought about getting out of my nice warm bed,

_"I have a job for you"_

"What sort of job?"

_"I have to fly to Wutai today to discuss business with an associate and I'd like you to come with me" _

"How soon do I need to be there?"

_"Well I know it usually takes you an hour to get here so I'll see you then" _

"Alright well I'll see you in an hour" I snapped my phone shut and threw my legs out of the bed, "TIFA!" I called,

"YEAH"

"IS THERE ANY HOT WATER?"

"YEAH THERE SHOULD BE!"

"THANKS!" I had spent the night at seventh heaven since Tifa needed me to answer the phone for the delivery company while Cloud made the deliveries and she tended the bar.

* * *

After my shower I threw on my suit and a pair of black boots and headed down the stairs,

"You're up early" Tifa smiled handing me a piece of toast,

"Yeah Rufus called needs some bodyguard-ing since he's off to Wutai today" I took a large bite out of my toast, "Got a hair tie?"

"Yeah here you are" Tifa handed me a hair tie from her wrist and I pulled my hair back, eating the rest of my toast in three large bites I brushed the crumbs from my suit jacket,

"Well I'm off; I shouldn't be away all day"

"So soon? You just can't wait to see Reno can you" Tifa teased,

Reno and I had met when I was still a member of AVALANCHE, he and his partner Rude weren't as uptight as Tseng and Elena so I got along well with them. Tifa and Cloud had taken to teasing me about him since I had agreed to be Rufus' bodyguard,

"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer, it's too early" I smirked and grabbing the keys to my bike left Seventh Heaven and sped off towards the Shin Ra building.

When I got there the security guards knew to let me in right away and there was no need to stop at the front desk to announce I was here to see Rufus, I just nodded in the direction of the girl behind the desk and she nodded back and picked up the phone probably to say I was here.

Calling for the lift I stopped for a minute and pulling a compact out of the pocket of my trousers I checked no hair had fallen out of my ponytail and as the lift doors pinged I looked up and smirked,

"Yo!" Reno smiled and raised a hand in greeting,

"Yo yourself, I suppose you're flying out to Wutai today?"

"You bet, yo"

"I take my life in my hands then" I joked stepping into the lift,

"Hey! I take offense to that, yo! I'm a great pilot yo!"

"Yeah keep telling yourself that Reno" I laughed,.

When we reached the top floor Tseng was waiting outside Rufus' office with a trademark scowl on his face,

"You're three minutes late Aayma"

"And that stick up the stick up your ass has lodged itself three meters higher it seems" I quipped back walking past Tseng and opening Rufus' door with my hip, "The Party has arrived"

"I was surprised when I got the call actually; I thought you'd just decide not to come since it was only midday" Rufus laughed,

"I did think about it for a split second but then I decided nope, it's too much fun watching Tseng get his knickers in a twist over my suit"

"Well shall we get going then?" Rufus stood up from behind his desk and I followed him out and down the corridor to the executive lift which took us to the roof where Reno was waiting with Rude in the co-pilot's seat, "let's go Reno"

* * *

"Rude you're coming with me and you can wait outside the door" Rufus said as soon as we landed, "Reno, Aya you stay here with the chopper"

"Sir" Reno and Rufus answered together,

"You got it" I gave Rufus a mock salute and a smirk as I watched him and Rude walk off to meet this important business man and his welcoming committee.

Once they'd disappeared I took off my jacket and threw it in the back of the helicopter and taking my hair down, "it's way too warm today"

"Think you could survive jumping off the building? You could go to the nearest store and get a cold drink, yo" Reno laughed,

I looked over the edge, "Not from here anyway, a few floors down though maybe" I looked back at Reno totally serious, "but I'm working so no, no I will not be jumping off any buildings any time soon … well not in the next few hours"

"So it's your birthday this week, yo?" Reno asked changing the subject knowing full well if we continued I would end up jumping off the building

"Yeah party's Friday, you're invited"

"Think Cloud will let me through the door, yo?" Reno half joked, Cloud wasn't Shin Ra's biggest fan

"Nah he'll be fine, I'll just threaten him first"

Reno was making a rather large attempt to not look at my chest; instead he was making intense eye contact,

"You know your eyes really freak me out, yo"

"So stop staring at them"

"I can't help it; they're just weird, yo"

"Yeah well having a deranged lunatic experiment on you will do that to a person" I said offhandedly,

"I guess so, yo" Reno agreed.

The two of us just sat on the edge of the roof for the next hour not really talking about anything in particular, just anything and nothing.

When Rufus came back through the door at the far end of the roof we both stood back up and I grabbed my jacket out of the back of the helicopter and pulled my hair back as Rufus shook hands with the business man and walked back over to us,

"You know I'm surprised you didn't jump off the roof and find somewhere that sold cold drinks, Rufus laughed once we were in the air

"I was tempted to" I responded, "but I wouldn't have made it, a few floors down and I would have though" I nodded confidently,

"I don't doubt that" Rufus agreed, "So what are you doing for your birthday on Friday?"

"Well I figure since it's the middle of June and we're going through a heat wave I'd do something outside, maybe … I dunno, because if Vincent is coming I doubt he'll want to sit in direct sunlight"

"Isn't he like a vampire, yo?" Reno asked

"He's not a vampire Reno, and his girlfriend will agree" I shook my head.

* * *

When we got back to Edge it was about three so I called Cloud's phone from my bike to see where he was,

_"Strife Delivery you name it we deliver it" _

"Yo it's me"

_"Oh hi Aya, Tifa said you were in Wutai with Shin Ra?" _Cloud said,

"Yeah I just got back, what are you up to?"

_"I'm out on a delivery; I should be back within about fifteen minutes though. Apparently Marlene and Denzel have been asking for you" _

"Well I'm on my way home now so I'll meet you there"

_"See ya" _I hung up the phone and sped off home,

"Tifa, I'm back!"

"Aya!" Marlene and Denzel came rushing towards me,

"We're glad your back!" Denzel said,

"We've been making invitations for your party!" Marlene said

"Wow that's great you guys! How many have you got done?"

"Come see!" I took off my jacket and let my hair down and followed the kids into the front room, where they showed me all the invitations they'd made,

"There's one for Daddy, one for Cloud, one for Tifa, one for Yuffie, one for Vincent, one for Cid, one for Red XII, one for Cait Sith, one for Kaya, one for Mr Shin Ra, one for Mr Reno and one for Mr Rude" Marlene listed while Denzel showed me the invitations one by one,

"Well we need to deliver these don't we?" I smiled warmly at the two kids, "just let me get changed first and then when Cloud gets back we'll all go deliver them together"

"Okay!" they chirped together, I left them watching TV and went back up into my room passing Tifa on the stairs,

"I thought I heard you come in"

"Yeah Marlene and Denzel were showing me the invitations they'd made for Friday"

"Do you know what you want to do?" Tifa asked,

"I was thinking we could have a party on the roof"

"But Vincent won't like if it's during the day" Tifa said

"Which is why I was thinking sundown" I nodded wisely

"Sundown is a good idea"

"Well Cloud should be home soon so when he gets here I promised the kids we could go deliver the invitations"

"Well ok, but take my car I know how fast you drive on your bikes" Tifa warned

"Yes Mother" I stuck my tongue out at her, Tifa was like the Mother in our little group taking care of us all.

So after changing into a tank top and jean shorts and putting on some jewellery I picked out of my jewellery box I headed back downstairs to the front room where Marlene and Denzel were showing Cloud their invitations,

"Alright well I'm done getting changed, shall we go?"

"I have the keys" Cloud said sitting up, "where to first?"

"Shin Ra, I can drop of Rufus', Reno's and Rude's invites" I said following the kids out the door telling Tifa we were off when we passed her in the kitchen.

So we went to Shin Ra and I left the invites with the girl at the desk and then Cloud and I then posted the rest of the invites to the last address anyone had given us and after we treated the kids to ice cream at MERCURTIO's Ice cream Parlour where Vincent's girlfriend Kaya worked,

"Hey Kaya" I raised my hand in greeting to her

"Hey Aya, Cloud, hey you two!" Kaya smiled at the kids,

"Hi Kaya!" they chimed,

"What can I get you then?"

"Can I have a chocolate fudge sundae?" Marlene asked

"Me too" Denzel agreed

"Okay and Aya, Cloud do you guys want anything?"

"Chocolate milkshake if you please my love" I smiled at her,

"Vanilla milkshake" Cloud said,

"Okay! Coming right up" she left and the kids talked excitedly about getting chocolate fudge sundaes,

"So what were you doing in Wutai?" Cloud asked,

"Huh? I have no idea, Rufus said he had a job when he called at twelve-"

"He called at twelve and you actually got up?" Cloud laughed,

"Yeah I know he was as shocked as you are now, but I got up anyway and got dressed and headed over and then he took Rude with him to stand outside the office and left Reno and I on the roof"

"You and Reno" Cloud took up the baton of teasing, raising his eyebrows and smirking

"Drop it Strife" I warned with a smirk of my own, "anyway we just sat on the roof talking while Rufus talked business in the building and then we came home and I called you"

"Here we go then!" Kaya came back and gave the kids their sundaes and Cloud and I our milkshakes,

"We have something for you!" Marlene said brightly

"You do?" Kaya asked

"Yup" Marlene handed Kaya the invitation to my party and Kaya smiled

"This is great you guys, thanks"

"Can we give you Vincent's invite as well love?" I asked, "Since I have no idea where the hell he goes half time"

"Sure that's fine" so Marlene handed Kaya Vincent's invite as well and when we'd finished we threw some money on the table and then headed back home where Tifa had cooked dinner.

* * *

**So I did some calculations and then re-read the original Reno fic I'd posted and realised I had everything wrong.**

**So I played through VII again and watched Advent Children and thought "well why not re-do the whole thing" **

**So that's what I'm doing**

**Hope you enjoy it **

* * *

**Watching: Ed Byrne – Different Class, Listening to: Bruno Mars – Grenade, Thought of the day: Rwar hungry Dx**


	3. Host Club Birthday Party

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Stop calling**

**Stop calling**

**I don't wanna talk anymore**

**I left my head and my heart **

**On the dance floor**

**

* * *

**

Friday morning at half six in the morning I was sleeping quite soundly in my bed with the window open a crack since it was so warm, and the covers off the bed for the same reason when suddenly I was hit by a bucket load of ice cubes,

"What the mother fuck!" I screamed loudly,

"Hi!" Cloud smiled brightly, "happy birthday!"

"I hate you sometimes Strife, I really do"

"Get dressed you idiot we need to decorate the roof"

"And you couldn't have woken me at a civil hour because …"

"It's tradition" Cloud said with a large dopey smile

Ever since I had joined SOLDIER and met Zack and Cloud they'd started a tradition of waking me at half six on my birthday by throwing a bucket of ice cubes at me, they'd also instructed me in the making and throwing of tip-ex bombs.

So I got up anyway and threw a pair of tracksuit shorts on and headed up to the roof, with the fire escape ladder Tifa had installed by the side of the building which went down past my window, where Cloud was waiting with a string of fairy lights,

"Alright let's get this roof looking party-tastic" I laughed as Cloud chucked me the fairy lights and I strung them up.

* * *

Cloud and I decorated the roof until about ten when Tifa came up with some toast, after which I took a shower and looked after the phone for the delivery service until about five that evening.

After that I helped Tifa make some food for the party as Cloud looked for an extension lead that would reach from the plug by the window in my room to the roof.

At nine I was back on the roof with Cloud who wouldn't let me do anything hooking up electronics and so I was sat at one of the little garden tables with umbrella's in the middle,

"Feet down you'll dirty the table" Tifa said slapping my feet down when she came up, "Yuffie and Cid are here"

"Super Aya away" I made whooshing sounds as I climbed down the fire escape into my room and then down into the kitchen where Yuffie and Cid were talking to Marlene and Denzel,

"AYA!" Yuffie yelled loudly and hugged me tightly,

"Hi Yuffie" I laughed prying the younger girl off me, "you got the invites Marlene and Denzel made then?"

"Yeah I am it was so cute!" Yuffie said releasing me to pat Marlene and Denzel on the head and smiling,

"Hey squirt, happy birthday" Cid said handing me a present,

"Thanks! I can't open this until later cause Tifa made me promise" I said sitting down, beside him,

"Awe I can't give you mine then until later!" Yuffie pouted,

"Don't pout Yuffie, you can still give it to me or you can put it up on the roof if you like"

"I'll go put it on the roof!" Yuffie said cheerily and skipped off to the roof with Marlene following,

"Well Cid I think Cloud could use another man to hook up the electronics on the roof"

"Alright, I'll go help him out then"

I followed Cid up to my room and helped him out the window and up the fire escape after which I closed the curtains in my room and went for a shower.

While I was in the shower and getting ready I heard the doorbell go numerous times announcing everyone's arrival and so when I was done getting ready I opened my curtains again and climbed out the window with my shoes in my hand,

"THE PARTY HAS ARRIVED!" I yelled loudly as I jumped over the wall.

The party went off without a hitch apparently my idea of a sunset/summer night party was a brilliant idea, especially to Vincent who had come without the cape which, he told me, was under duress and I believed him.

Everyone wasn't staying the night since there was nowhere for them to sleep so after putting Marlene to bed Barrett was the first to leave then Cid and Yuffie, then Cait Sith and Red XIII, followed by Kaya and Vincent and then finally Rufus and Rude, Reno offered to stay for a while to help with the clean up,

"You know you don't have to stay" I said for the tenth time while stacking up chairs,

"Yeah but I thought I should, yo"

"Eh suit yourself" as I was stacking the chairs I grabbed my new digital camera, a present from Rufus, and snapped a really quick picture of Reno when he wasn't paying attention,

"What the hell yo" Reno said confused

"Ha, ha this is so going in my box!" I laughed,

"Box" Reno asked,

"I have a box of favourite memories from my life collective" I explained putting the camera back down and putting plastic glasses into a black bin bag,

"So life collective does that include when you were a …" Reno couldn't finish the sentence,

"Hostess, the word you're looking for is hostess. But no, no it does not. It's from I met Zack and Cloud really until now"

"How _did_ you meet the boss yo?"

"Well I was off one evening and was drinking myself stupid when he offered to buy me a drink. I didn't know who he was since he had coloured contact lenses in, so I let him. And we ended up drinking ourselves unconscious and waking up the next day in the Host Club I used to work in and there were Turks that had come to take Rufus back and then it dawned on me I had gone drinking with the boss man's son"

"Wow!" Reno was genuinely shocked,

"That's when he was young, when he was like 19. He's much more responsible now" I laughed

"Hey that's everything" Tifa said poking her head out of my window, "It's still early Aya so if you want to go out there's still time"

"I would but I don't like drinking on my own, I usually end up in a heap somewhere" I laughed awkwardly

It was true, when I drank on my own I usually ended up in a ditch with a million missed calls on my phone from concerned friends wondering where the hell I'd gone and once upon waking a found someone's phone number written on my thigh in smudged lipstick,

"I can go with you, tomorrow's my day off yo" Reno offered,

"How sweet of you Reno" Tifa smiled, I knew where this was going,

"On that note, we are out of here. I'll stay at Shin Ra tonight" I climbed down the fire escape ignoring Tifa's suggestive smile and once Reno was down we headed for the nearest bar that wasn't Seventh Heaven

* * *

It had been an hour since Reno and I had started drinking and I was just starting to feel a buzz,

"So what was the rush to get out yo?" Reno asked

"Tifa and Cloud are under the impression that you and I are more than just friends, smile" I took another unassuming picture of Reno

"More than friends yo" Reno seemed baffled for a moment then I could tell he was actually considering the idea,

"I'd stop considering it if you value your day off tomorrow" I said sipping my drink, "Rufus owes me more than a few favours"

"You know you are one seriously scary chick yo" Reno shuddered

"And don't you ever forget it" I laughed, "now come on we have some serious drinking to do.

And that is just what we did, we ended up going on a pseudo bar crawl around all the bars in Edge and ending up in the red light district in the rebuilt Host Club I used to work at, "why is it every time I go drinking with a Shin Ra employee I end up here?" I asked myself out loud as the girls fawned over Reno,

"You used to work here yo?" Reno asked when he was finally allowed to sit down without a gaggle of girls following him,

"Yup" I downed one of the shots I had in front of me,

"And how did you end up in AVALANCHE then, yo" Reno asked not really paying attention to me at all but watching a girl walk past in a red Chinese tunic with a large slit up the side all the way to her thigh,

"Got my contract bought by a gang leader, a woman and so I worked for her for a while then got recruited to SOLDIER which you know then after what happened I left Shin Ra and joined AVALANCHE"

"So it's Hostess turned SOLDIER turned freedom fighter turned …"

"Bodyguard I guess is how you'd describe what I do for Rufus" I downed another shot, "bodyguard slash secretary, hold that thought!" I sprang out of my seat over to the girl with the red tunic who had turned to face me, "Rhea!" I cried, the girl placed her hand on the thigh of the man she was sitting beside and stood up,

"Aya, I never thought I'd see you back here" she smiled and embraced me, "then again you have ended up here more than once when you were with that blonde haired man, who's your new friend?" she asked

"Oh that's Reno he's a Turk" I whispered the last part since a lot of people still didn't trust Shin Ra after METEOR and what happened last year with the remnants stealing the kids with geo-stigma,

"He's cute, is he your boyfriend?"

"No he's not … although some people seem to think he is" I muttered darkly, "anyway I'll let you get back to work, here call me some time and we'll catch up" I scribbled my phone number down on a piece of paper and handed it to her,

"You know that girl yo?" Reno asked when I got back to the booth we'd been sitting in,

"Yeah she's an old friend, anyway I'm not nearly drunk enough, hey Sunako two more!" I called to the girl behind the bar, who smiled and nodded,

"Do you know everyone in here yo?" Reno laughed,

"Not the new girls but all the girls my age yeah"

So Reno and I spent the rest of the night in Club Paradise and managed to stumble back to Shin Ra sometime in the early hours of Saturday morning and when I finally got to bed I could see the sun coming up over the horizon.

* * *

**I think I'm going pretty well with these new chapters**

**I think there mightn't be as many chapters in the rewrite as there were in the original only because the chapters are longer but this is only chapter two so we'll just have to wait and see**

**Watching: Step Brothers (and I can feel my brain cells dying the more I watch it), Listening to: My Chemical Romance: Na, Na, Na (I have headphones in while the TV is on), Random thought of the day: Jeff Bridges 3 you wouldn't say no lol**

**Reviews make me happy :)  
**


	4. Nightmares

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Bad news from the zones tumbleweeds**

**It looks like Jet-Star and the Kobra Kid **

**Had a clap with an exterminator that went all Costa Rica**

**Got themselves ghosted, dusted out on route one**

**So it's time to hit the red line and up-thrust the volume out there**

**Keep your boots tight**

**Keep your gun close **

**And die with your mask on if you've got to**

**

* * *

**

When I got up the next day it was only because someone was banging on my door,

"Alright, alright keep your panties on" I opened the door and Elena was standing there, "Elena? What time is it?"

"It's one pm, the President wants to see you"

"Right, let me throw on a pair of jeans then" I grabbed a pair of jeans out of the small wardrobe and pulled them on and a pair of converse I didn't bother tying the laces on, "alright Elena lets go"

I got on well with Elena, she wasn't as uptight as Tseng and being the only girl Turk she sometimes needed female company so she called me,

"I'll wait out here until you're done" Elena smiled and knocked the door of Rufus' office,

"Come in" I opened the door with my hip as usual, "oh good you've slept the hangover off" Rufus smiled

"You know me so well" I laughed, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I'll be leaving on a business trip tomorrow for three days and I'll need you to come with me"

"Right I'll need to check in at home then and let them know what's going on"

"I'll see you tomorrow then at nine am"

"Oh man" I groaned, "alright, nine am" I left the office and Elena was still waiting outside,

"So you're coming with us tomorrow?" she asked as we made our way back down to the corridor where my room was,

"Yeah so I'll need to check in at home and let them know I'll be gone for three days" I answered when we'd gotten back down to my room, "so I'll see you tomorrow"

"Alright" she headed back off to whatever she was doing before Rufus sent her to get me so I decided I'd better head home, I tied the laces on my converse and picking a clean t-shirt from the wardrobe I decided I'd wake Reno so I walked down the corridor to his room and sliding my special access card into the lock on his door I looked around the room for something I could fill with cold water, finding a small bucket I filled it with water from the en suite bathroom and threw it all over Reno,

"WHAT THE FUCK YO" he yelled

"Hi, so I don't know if someone woke you already but apparently Rufus is going on some trip tomorrow for three days and we're all going" I knew I was grinning like an idiot but Reno looked like a drowned rat it was just too funny,

"Three days yo" I nodded, "damn"

"Yeah well I'm off home so I'll see you at nine tomorrow. Later"

I left Reno's room before he had time to react and left the building forgetting I didn't have sunglasses with me and wincing when the bright sunlight hit my eyes, "damn"

I made it back to Seventh Heaven for about two and it was only Tifa when I got into the kitchen,

"So how was last night?" she teased,

"We went to Club Paradise" I answered her

"Why is it every time you go drinking with a Shin Ra employee you end up there?" she laughed,

"You know Tifa I asked myself that same question, but anyway I have news"

"Oh?"

"Not that kind Lockhart, mind out of the gutter" I teased, "No I'm heading off tomorrow for three days, Shin Ra stuff"

"Three days alone with Reno?"

"Three days bodyguarding Rufus with the three other Turks besides Reno" I said,

"What's that about Reno?" Cloud asked coming through the door,

"She's going away for three days with him" Tifa answered

"A romantic getaway Aya" Cloud asked with a smirk sitting down next to me,

"I'll hurt you Strife and I'll make it look like an accident too" I threatened, "where are Marlene and Denzel?"

"They had a play date with their friend Nanashi today" Tifa answered

"Well in that case I need to get packing for my trip" I sighed, "three days of being scary, I don't know how Rude does it" I walked off muttering to myself

* * *

At eight the next morning my alarm went off and I groggily pulled myself out of bed and into the shower, it wasn't until I was washing my hair that I realised I was actually in the shower and almost slipped and fell.

Putting my suit on and a pair of all black converse I grabbed the bag I'd packed and headed downstairs where Tifa was already up and had made French toast and coffee,

"Cloud won't be up until nine. I guess I'll see you in three days" Tifa said once I'd helped her wash up,

"See you in three days, I'll call when we get to wherever" I gave her a quick hug before heading out and speeding off to Shin Ra, instead of going through the actual building to get to the helipad on the roof I just hoisted my backpack onto my shoulders and climbed up the fire escape,

"You couldn't have just come in through the building?" Tseng scolded when I jumped over the last few rails onto the roof,

"Where's the fun in that?" I answered him,

"Well now we're all here shall we get going?" Rufus said

After getting in the helicopter I just talked to Elena and ignored Tseng's constant talking about whatever it was we were doing in as it turned out Nibelheim,

"Will you be ok?" Elena asked

"About going to Nibelheim, yeah I'll be fine"

"But with everything …"

"I'll be fine honestly, it was a long time ago and I'm over it all now" I waved a hand dismissively but even though I was completely over what had happened to me in Nibelheim all those years ago the scar on my chest still started to twinge a little.

When we landed in Nibelheim there were loads of business men and women there to talk about whatever it was that was so important it took three days, probably something to do with the planet and rebuilding after METEOR. I never really paid any attention to what Rufus was doing, so I just stood behind him when it was necessary and looked scary.

Finally quite late that evening we were all exhausted and glad to crash into the rooms provided for anyone who was attending this big seminar, that night was a restless one for me. I guess being in Nibelheim again stirred up some old memories that all rushed to the surface at once

* * *

_"What the hell is there in Nibelheim anyway?" I asked Zack after we'd gotten our orders_

_"I'm from Nibelheim" Cloud said, "and a friend of mine still lives there"_

_"That's Tifa isn't it?" I asked, Cloud had talked nonstop about her when we'd met _

_"We're not going to meet up with old friends you three" Sephiroth said walking past us, "It's important to Shin Ra" _

_"And that's all I need to know" I said putting my Sai in the loops of my belt, "To Nibelheim then" _

_"We need to separate and check out the reactor" Sephiroth said, "Zack and Cloud you two are together Aya you're with me" _

_"Got it" so we separated and went about checking the reactor as per our orders, Sephiroth and I were talking to some of the people who worked on the reactor when Sephiroth started to look over some papers,_

_"Where did these come from" he demanded from one of the workers, _

_"T-those are Professor Hojo's notes s-sir" the guy was shaking with fear, _

_"Are there any more?" Sephiroth yelled,_

_"I-in the R&D room" _

_Sephiroth took off and I calmed the guy down before following him to the R&D room, _

_"Sephiroth, are you ok, that guy was scared out of his mind that's not like you" he didn't answer, "Sephiroth" _

_He turned round to me with the papers still in his hands, he didn't look like himself at all, he looked possessed, "Sephiroth?" I tried again only this time he responded by stabbing my just below my right collar bone with his Masume and then dragging it down my chest to just below the left part of my rib cage and pulling it out viciously._

_I collapsed to the floor loosing blood at an alarming rate, Sephiroth just stepped over me and out towards Nibelheim._

_I tried to find my voice to call for help but I was choking on my own blood so I fished my phone out of my pocket and tried to call Zack for help but as soon as he picked up the blood was choking me so much I couldn't get any words out of my mouth._

_Finally he and Cloud managed to find me by calling my cell phone over and again until they could find where the ringing was coming from,_

_"Holy crap Aya" Zack fell down beside me, "Cloud give me your jacket" Cloud did as he was told and Zack rolled it into a pillow to support my head, Zack ripped part of his own shirt off and used to compress the wound to try and stop the bleeding, "Cloud radio in for help" _

_"We need medical help urgently, Aayma Takashi has been stabbed and is losing blood rapidly" I could hear Cloud in the distance,_

_"Who did this to you Aya?" Zack asked his hands covered in blood from my wound,_

_"S-Sephiroth" I managed to spit out before everything went dark _

_When I came to again I was strapped to a table in a lab, my chest had been stitched up but the wound was still red and sore, I tried to move but I was pretty securely strapped down, the thing was my hearing and my vision not to mention all my other senses were somehow enhanced_

_I looked down and my arms had needles stuck in them and the same with my legs,_

_"What the hell?" _

_"Oh so you're awake" a tall man with glasses wearing a lab coat hovered over me, "you will be my greatest achievement my dear, now this is going to hurt. Daniel, turn the machine on" _

_There was the sound of a machine powering up then all I knew was pain, and then everything went black again_

* * *

**Three chapters in two days go me! **

**I've been playing a lot of VII recently so I guess that's giving me motivation to write more **

**:\**

**Watching: The News, Listening to: nothing, Thought of the day: R.I.P Michaela Hart **


	5. Throwing rocks at a Mako reactor Y

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**I've been looking for an original sin**

**One with a twist and a bit of a spin**

**And since I've**

**Done all the old ones**

**Till they've all been done in**

**Now I'm just looking**

**And I'm gone with the wind**

**Endlessly searching **

**For an original sin**

**

* * *

**

I woke up in a cold sweat; I could feel the needles in my arms and legs still. Feel the pain of that _stuff_ being pumped into my body.

I rubbed my arms to try and get myself warm again, I looked at the little digital clock beside the bed, "06:30 _no point in going back to sleep, I might as well get up"_ I threw my legs out of the bed and decided to take a shower to wash the cobwebs out of my head.

When I had finished it was Seven am and Tseng was banging on my door, "What?" I snapped throwing my door back against the wall,

"Oh you're already up, good" he walked off down the hall and banged on someone else's door,

"That guy makes my blood boil sometimes!" I muttered to myself, but I got dressed anyway, we were supposed to be walking around the town today so I didn't bother with a jacket just my shirt and trousers,

"Hey, Tseng bang on your door this morning too yo?" Reno asked when I met him at breakfast

"Yeah but I was already up"

"Lucky you, yo" I nodded, "you don't look so good, yo? You feel ok?"

"Not really, I didn't sleep well"

"Too warm? It's crazy warm at the minute, yo"

"No it wasn't the heat. Bad dreams" I laughed bitterly, "I sound like a kid, but no memories I thought I'd put a very tight lid on bubbling back up to the surface. But it was only last night I'll be fine after today"

* * *

Reno wasn't the only one who noticed I wasn't at myself that day, Rude and Elena asked the same questions Reno had and I told them the same thing it was just memories bubbling up because of where we were.

I was sitting on the roof of the building with a can of beer in my hand at the end of the day when Rufus came to sit beside me,

"I noticed you weren't at yourself" he said after five minutes,

"Yeah, it's being back here. I haven't been back since I escaped all those years ago and well it just makes old memories come bubbling up" I rubbed the scar on my chest unconsciously,

"Old war wound acting up?" Rufus asked,

"Yeah"

"Well we're only going to be here for two more days but if you can't stay I'll understand"

"It's only two days, I think I can handle it" I laughed,

"Alright well I'll see you in the morning"

"See ya Rufus" I finished my beer and headed off to bed, after not sleeping well the previous night I was exhausted so I decided an early night would be best.

_I came to in a small room wearing nothing except a flimsy paper gown and I ached all over and there was no plausible way out of the room,_

_"Aya" _

_"Zack" _

_The two of us embraced, "where are we?" _

_"I don't know all I know is the three of us are getting out of here" _

_It was then I noticed Cloud sitting in the corner, he didn't say anything he just stared off into space, _

_"What did they do to him?" _

_"I don't want to know all I know is we're busting out of here. Someone should be along soon to take us out of here and that's when we'll get out" _

_And he was right, someone was along in five minutes so Zack and I managed to overpower the guards, find some clothes to wear and between the two of us we hoisted Cloud onto his feet and he followed us out zombie like out of the lab and out into what appeared to be Nibelheim where we managed to get a guy to give us a lift in the back of his truck to Midgar,_

_"Once we get to Midgar I'm going straight to Rufus and I'm gonna get that son of a bitch" I said acidly._

_Zack was standing up on the back of the pickup breathing in the fresh, free air when suddenly shots started firing and looking ahead Zack and I saw MPs with snipers firing at the truck, _

_"Aya get Cloud and get out of here save yourselves I'll hold them off as long as I can" _

_"But –" _

_"No, get out of here NOW!" _

_I nodded and grabbed Cloud's arm and ran for as long as I could as far as I could until my legs gave out under me. _

_I stayed in that one spot for hours until sundown and I realised Zack wasn't coming, he wouldn't ever come for us again, _

_"Come on Cloud we need to find him" it had started to pour down with rain making it hard for me to see where I was going but I managed to find Zack, he was lying on the ground,_

_"Oh my god Zack" I dropped to the ground_

_"I thought I told you to go?" he laughed, spitting up some blood,_

_"We couldn't leave you behind" I said tears coming down my face in streams _

_"Cloud, here" Zack handed Cloud his buster sword,_

_"You are my living legacy now. Take care of him Aya, promise me you'll take care of him"_

_"I promise" _

_"No more tears, don't waste your tears on me" _

_"No more tears Zack, I promise" _

* * *

**Bang**

**Bang**

"Aya are you awake?" Tseng's voice came through the door,

"I am now" I yelled back, "Yikes" I sighed heading to the shower once again, "hopefully that's the end of that I mean that's everything from being here last time"

For the second day Elena, Rude, Reno and Rufus noticed I wasn't at myself. Rufus kept telling me I could go back to Edge if I wanted and Reno offered to fly me back as well but I insisted I was fine. And got on with the job I was there to do.

It was late on the second day when everyone had gone off to do whatever they wanted that I decided to go back to the old Shin Ra mansion, hopefully by confronting the source of all my restless nights I could get over the whole thing.

I was standing outside the old mansion just staring at it as the sun went down behind the old reactor on the hill when something flashed in the corner of my eye, something silver and black.

I whipped my head around lightning fast and saw nothing,

"And now I'm hallucinating" I sighed,

"This place is seriously creepy yo" someone said behind me making me jump about a mile in the air, I turned around and Reno was standing behind me,

"You scared the life out of me!" I said slapping him on the chest, "but yeah, some evil shit went down in that place"

"Is that where you …"

"Yeah, I was here checking out the reactor" I gestured to the old reactor up on the hill, "Sephiroth and I were a team and he found some of Hojo's papers and went nuts, stabbed me then went on a rampage, which of course you know"

"We should go back yo, tomorrow's our last day"

"Yeah thankfully"

"Come on then, yo" I followed Reno back to the hotel we were staying at and we parted ways at my room,

"Hopefully tonight I'll get some rest" I said climbing into my bed exhausted

_I was on that lab table again, strapped down again with needles in my arms and legs,_

_"Let me out of here you sick fuck!" I screamed,_

_"You were going to be Sensei's pride and glory until you left, I will finish his work" someone was muttering,_

_"You have been chosen by mother to aid me in my quest to rid the cosmos of fools like Rufus Shin Ra you should be happy Aya" a familiar voice said, but I couldn't seem to match it to a face _

_"Let me go and I'll show you just how happy I am" I threatened _

_"Doctor pull the switch" the 'Doctor' pulled the switch and my body was racked with pain once more as I felt that _stuff_ flowing into my veins again and my body tried to fight of this malevolent intruder_

_"Don't fight it, embrace it, embrace Mother and you'll be just like me" the voice said again_

_"I'll never be like you! NEVER!"_

_"Doctor up the dosage" _

I shot up in the bed

"What the hell was that?" I wondered aloud, "My mind is playing tricks on me" I shook my head and looked at the clock, "Five am really?" I sighed "this is because I went _there_ yesterday, brilliant idea. Face my demons and have them mess with my head, fuckin … ugh" I decided to get up anyway and take a shower since there was still two hours before anyone would be up.

I put on a pair of jeans shorts I'd brought with me, an old tank top and my knee high converse and headed out of the hotel towards the old reactor. I stood outside and closed my eyes remembering Zack and everything that had happened before everything came crashing down round my ears, "FUCK YOU!" I screamed throwing a large rock at the reactor.

When I got back to the hotel Tseng was just getting out of his room,

"You're up early" he commented

"Been awake since five, just in case you haven't noticed I haven't been sleeping well these past three days"

"I had noticed I thought you were heading out at night and not getting any sleep"

"Nope, I've been here every night. The reason I haven't been sleeping well is because of where we are"

"Oh"

"Yeah" I just walked off and back to my room and changed into a suit, and headed back out where I bumped into Rufus, "hey"

"You're up before Tseng?"

"Yeah I was up at five"

"Why?"

"Nightmares again, today I decided I'd go throw rocks at the old reactor" Rufus laughed,

"Reno told me you went to the old Shin Ra manor yesterday?" Rufus asked

"Yeah in the spirit of confronting my demons, didn't really help. My mind ended up playing tricks on me"

"Oh?"

"Yeah I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye but I couldn't have seen what I saw"

"What did you think you saw?"

"Silver hair, black PVC" Rufus took a sharp intake of breath, "I know, so that's why I said I couldn't have seen it. It's my mind playing tricks on me"

"I see, well today is the last day. We'll be heading back to Edge about eight this evening so if you can stick it out until then"

"No problem"

So for the rest of the day I just turned my mind off and didn't think too much about anything except the baser instincts of keeping Rufus safe and anyway Mr. Anal Retentive Head Turk was on the lookout for everything anyway so there really wasn't any need for the rest of us.

Finally at seven thirty we finished and I changed back into my shorts, tank top and knee high converse and we headed back to Edge, each of us was exhausted so no one said much I just got on my bike and drove home.

* * *

**Not a great ending but I got some good plot points in there I think**

**Huh**

**Well I'm just gonna keep writing here so maybe in the next few days I'll have most of it written **

**Watching: South Park, Listening to: nothing, Thought of the day: My dog just woke herself up cause she was barking in her sleep lol**


	6. Beach Buddies

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**If this is the last kiss**

**Let's make it last all night**

**If this is the last time **

**I'm ever **

**Ever gonna hold you **

**Let me hold you tight till the morning light**

**

* * *

**

I slept pretty soundly that night. Probably because I wasn't in Nibelheim anymore, when I went downstairs Cloud and Tifa were sitting at the table,

"How are you?" Cloud asked

"I'm assuming either Reno or Rufus called and said I wasn't at myself when I was out there"

"Shin Ra called" Cloud confirmed,

"Yeah well being back there again brought back bad memories y'know but I'm ok now"

"You're sure?" Tifa asked,

"Trust me if I wasn't feeling ok you'd be the first two to know" I assured them, "Tifa you made pancakes?" I'm pretty sure my eyes were glistening,

"Have as many as you like" Tifa smiled,

"Ugh thank you so much I've been living of that crappy hotel food for the last three days"

"Was it really that bad?" Cloud asked, "I always thought the hotel served nice food"

"But that was when you guys were growing up" I said through a mouthful of pancakes, "it's 'under new management' now and the food sucks"

"AYA" Marlene ran into the kitchen, with Denzel following

"We missed you!"

"I missed you guys too, how about today we go to the beach?" I smiled

"YAY" the kids ran off to pack their things for the beach,

"Are you sure you're ok?" Cloud asked once more,

"I'm fine stop fussing!" I said smiling; "now where did I put my swimsuit?"

* * *

"Alright you guys we need to stop by Shin Ra 'cause I need to talk to Rufus for five minutes then we can go to the beach so you two can hang out in my room ok?"

"Okay!"

I'd taken Tifa's car again since the kids weren't allowed to ride my bike without helmets and since I didn't wear one considering I'd be fine if I crashed. Plus I did drive really fast, probably for the same reason that no matter what I'd be fine.

We parked in the car park behind the Shin Ra building that I rarely used I just sort of left my bike wherever and the security guys looked after it for me, I never was in for very long unless I was working anyway,

"Alright guys best behaviour through reception" the kids nodded and held onto my hands as we walked through reception when we got into the lift they let go, "ok you guys need to do me another massive favour. Don't tell Cloud I took you in here with me"

"Why not" Marlene asked

"Because Cloud doesn't really like Rufus and he'll get mad if he knows I brought you guys in here. It's not really a good place for kids"

The lift pinged and the doors opened onto the floor with my room, so I let the kids into my room and left them in charge of my bag and then headed off to see Rufus.

I knocked the door this time for whatever reason it just felt right,

"Come on in Aya" Rufus said, so I opened the door,

"Hey Ru – Barrett" I stopped midsentence because there sitting opposite Rufus was Barrett, "Um what's going on?"

"Well we got talking at your birthday party and we're going into business together"

"Well I'm glad my party was so productive for you both" I laughed awkwardly, "anyway I just came in to say that I'm ok now. It was just being back that sort of messed me up. So I'm gonna go, the kids and I are going to the beach"

"You should bring Reno with you" Rufus said,

"And why would I do that?" I asked suspiciously

"It's his day off and he's just been hanging around here all day, I think the beach would give him something to do" Rufus answered

"Uh huh …"

"I'll be round later to see Marlene" Barrett said changing the subject

"I'll relay the message" I waved as I walked out the door, "Rufus is up to something I just know he is. Still it couldn't hurt" I said to myself walking down to the lift.

When I got back down to the floor with my room as I was walking past Reno's door I gave it an almighty kick, "come on Red look alive we're going to the beach!" I yelled when he opened the door to see what the hell was going on, "we're leaving in five"

"We, who's we yo?"

"You, the kids and me, no more dilly dallying come on let's go!"

"Alright, five minutes yo"

"Good" I opened the door to my room and before it shut wedged it open with one of my all black converse, "Well you guys Reno's coming with us, and Marlene your Dad's gonna drop by later"

"Daddy's coming? How do you know?" Marlene was excited

"He's talking business with Rufus at the moment" there was a knock at the door, "it's clearly open Reno" I laughed,

"Yeah but I thought I'd knock since you have the kids with you yo"

"Hi Mr Reno" Marlene said cheerily,

"Marlene you don't need to call him 'Mister' he's not someone you need …. I'm not gonna finish that sentence actually"

"Oh? And why not yo" Reno asked

"Cause it's not nice and I'm supposed to be a role model. Alright off we go!" the kids ran out of the room and down to the lift,

"You're a role model now yo?" Reno laughed, "I feel bad for those kids yo"

"Hey! I'm universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult!" I defended myself, Reno looked like I'd slapped him in the face with a fish, "finally a lie too big, come on then Red we're gonna get left behind" I grabbed Reno by the wrist and ran down the corridor with him

* * *

When we got to the beach it was packed, I'd expected this of course since we were in the middle of a heat wave most people were heading to the beach so it took us a while to find a spot but once we did the kids took off their clothes lightning quick, they'd put their swimsuits on under their clothes, and were off running into the sea,

"Those two are just endless bundles of energy aren't they yo" Reno laughed

"Yeah and it's a full time job keeping up with them. I kinda feel bad for Marlene though"

"Why, is it 'cause she's away from her dad the whole time yo?"

"Nope, cause she's twelve now"

"What does that have to do with anything yo?"

"You're a guy, you wouldn't understand" I took off my top, shorts and shoes and put them into the bag I'd brought with me,

"Oh … veering away from that, you look good in a two piece yo" Reno smirked as I put a towel down,

"You know if I didn't know you better I'd think you were flirting with me" I raised my eyebrows behind my aviators,

"I might be yo" Reno took off his own t-shirt and trousers and I think if I was anyone else my nose would have started to bleed,

"You don't look half bad yourself, bit pale mind but that should be sorted by the end of the day"

"I always thought I was too gawky for the beach growing up yo" Reno laughed sitting down next to me,

"Well you're Mister Scary Turk now, granted not as scary as Rude but still. All those years of working for Shin Ra and you're not so gawky anymore" I took out a bottle of sun cream and started putting it on,

"Need some help yo?" Reno asked devilishly

"No funny business alright" I responded with a small laugh handing the bottle to Reno as he put sun cream on my back,

"There you are, and your dignity remains yo"

"Reno I was a hostess I have no dignity" I lay back down on my towel,

"Should someone check on the kids yo?"

"Nah they're really strong swimmers, taught them myself they know not to swim out too far"

_# Hello daddy, Hello Mom, I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb! #_

"Hello?"

_"Aya! I'm so glad you took your phone!" _Tifa said, she sounded worried,

"What's wrong? Do you need me to come home?" I shot up on the towel

_"No! Well not yet, Aya, Cloud he – he –" _

"He what?"

_"He asked me to go on a date with him!" _she said quickly

"Well it's about damn time; he's been mooning after you for as long as I've known him" I laughed, "so you'll need me to babysit then?"

_"Oh my gosh yes!" _

"Alright well I'll see you later then" I snapped the phone closed, "so feel like helping me babysit later?"

"Are you asking me on a date yo?" Reno laughed

"No I'm a good babysitter; I don't send the kids to bed just so I can fool around with some guy"

"So now I'm just some guy yo?" Reno laughed, "Nah it'll be cool to help you babysit yo"

"Careful what you wish for" I said as the kids came running back up to us,

"Aya come swim with us!" Denzel said grabbing my hand and pulling me up,

"Alright, alright I'm coming"

* * *

By the time we were done at the beach the sun was going down and almost everyone had packed up and gone home, so it was just the kids, Reno and I left.

After bundling the kids up in towels and lifting them into the back of Tifa's car we went straight home since the kids were falling asleep after their big day.

When we got back Reno helped me lift the kids out of the car and into the house where Barrett was waiting in the kitchen talking to Cloud and Tifa who were all dressed up for their big night,

"Hi Barrett, Marlene fell asleep cause she had a big day at the beach today"

"That's ok; I'll be in the area more often anyway"

"Oh yeah congratulations about that, well we need to get these two to bed. If you guys wanna go on ahead"

"You're a life saver Aya" Cloud said,

"I know, I've saved your ass quite a few times" I laughed

After putting the kids to bed both Reno and I had showers, and then I decided I'd make dinner,

"I don't know about this yo, have you ever cooked before?"

"I've been on my own for as long as I can remember so fending for myself is par for the course and cooking counts as fending for myself" I said stirring the Bolognese,

"You cooked while you were a hostess yo?" Reno asked, "I thought it was all … y'know …"

"Having drinks with rich men and laughing at all their bad jokes?" I wish, nah there's a lot more to it than that. Right well this is ready"

The thing about a heat wave is that at night usually the atmosphere tries to right itself by getting rid of all the humidity in the air and it does this through a thunder storm, unfortunately thunder storms sometimes mean a complete power out and in this case, there was a loud rumble of thunder, a flash of lightning and a complete power out.

* * *

**Not too much of a cliffhanger really **

**I only stopped here cause this is coming up to six pages in word and if I keep going it'll end up being like twelve and that's waaay too long for one sitting.**

**So now I'm off to write chapter six**

**-zooms off-**

**Watching: Nothing today, Listening to: Bruno Mars – Grenade (again I'm addicted to this song!), Thought of the day: Should sexual orientation be included in schools sex education curriculum? I say yes, what about you guys?**


	7. The Game is Afoot!

**With the taste of your lips I'm on a ride**

**You're toxic I'm slippin' under**

**With the taste of the poison paradise**

**I'm addicted to you; don't you know that you're toxic?**

**And I love what you do; don't you know that you're toxic?**

**

* * *

**

"God damn thunder storm" I cursed, "help me find a torch" I started opening random cupboards until Reno announced he'd found one,

"I don't think it's working, yo"

"Give it" he handed the torch over and I whacked it against the wall making it flicker to life, "Nine times out of ten violence solves everything" I laughed, "alright I need to go check on the kids , the fuse box is in the basement here" I handed Reno the torch,

"Don't you need it yo?"

"Nope I can see fine in the dark, unless you're scared to go down into the basement on your own" I teased,

"No, I can do it; yo I'm the man here"

"Yes you are" I patronised, "now go fix the fuse box please" I left the kitchen and went to check on the kids, "you guys ok in here?" I asked

"Yeah the thunder woke us up" Denzel said, "but we're ok" I left the room just as the lights came back on, "well done" I praised Reno when I got back into the kitchen,

"Told you I could do it yo"

"I never said you couldn't" I laughed, "so the kids are ok and this food should still be warm"

* * *

"Look at that rain" I whistled, the rain was coming down in sheets beating against the window, "we usually don't get weather like this till November and it usually comes with wind that knocks you flat on your ass"

"And I have to get back to Shin Ra in it yo" Reno groaned,

"Just drive really fast and don't give the rain a chance to hit" Reno looked at me like I was mad, "what it works! You ever lived on the streets? No, no you did not therefore you cannot tell me what works and what doesn't"

"I wouldn't have liked to be living on the streets in weather like this yo" he said,

"Usually when it was like this we could find a shelter for the night, someone was always willing to let you in … well most people"

"You should let me take you out sometime yo" Reno said changing the subject completely,

"And why would I do that?" I asked,

"Come on you know you want to yo"

"Full of yourself much?"

"Come on, that benefit thing is coming up and I know you're going to it"

Reno was of course referring to the annual benefit Shin Ra hosted to raise money to help the planet, I went every year as a favour to Rufus and usually got hit on by business men while their wives were in the bathroom, it was awful,

"We're back!" Tifa called into the house,

"Living room" I called back, "so how'd it go?" I asked when the pair came into the living room,

"We're taking it slow and we'll see how it goes" Cloud said with his hand in Tifa's,

"Good money says they're doing more than holding hands by the end of the week" I whispered to Reno once Tifa and Cloud had gone upstairs

"Make it a date and your own yo" he whispered back,

"You're really not gonna let this go huh?" he shook his head, "fine if Cloud and Tifa aren't doing more than holding hands by the end of the week you've got yourself a date. Now fuck of I want to go to bed" I shoved Reno out the door and locked it behind me.

* * *

For the rest of the week I monitored Cloud and Tifa very carefully to see what exactly they were and weren't doing.

Reno also came over more often after work to check on the happy couple, Rude actually had to come and drag him away by the ponytail one night when he just wouldn't leave, of course I called Rude but I'd never tell Reno that.

By the end of the week Cloud and Tifa were still only holding hands when they went out somewhere and the occasional 'hi how was your day' kiss in the evenings,

"Looks like you owe me a date you" Reno smirked on the Friday,

"Damn it all" I cursed, "Dammit all Tifa why couldn't you be the one with a background in a Host Club and just spread your legs for Cloud the second you guys got upstairs on Saturday?" I cried,

"As I recall you're quite proud of being a hostess and not just 'spreading your legs' when someone was nice to you" Tifa said without missing a beat, she'd been in on the bet since she'd asked why Reno was coming over more often and I'd had to tell her the truth or face the conclusion she'd eventually jump to

"Damn I keep forgetting I told you and Aeris all about that" I laughed, it was funny to look back on, telling Aeris I was a hostess and watching her blush at all the sordid details, that girl was fun to tease,

"So I'll see you next week then for this benefit thing yo"

"You're going to leave me alone for a whole week?" I cheered in joy,

"Scary and mean yo"

"And don't ever forget it" I nodded, not bothering to watch him leave,

"That benefit thing sure has snuck up this year huh?" Tifa said sitting down next to me at the kitchen table,

"Well considering you and Cloud have been so loved up all week I wouldn't expect you to remember what day of the week it is" I teased,

"Says you who's been spending every night this week with Reno" Tifa countered,

"Here, I didn't ask him to come over he came of his own free will"

"To see you"

"Nope, to check your progress with Cloud we had a bet"

"And you lost, are you gonna honour it?"

"I always honour my bets, just ask Cloud"

"I don't think I need to know all the sordid details of being a SOLDIER" Tifa said

"But you'll listen to the sordid details of being a hostess?"

"Only because it was so fun to see Aeris react to everything you told her"

"Yeah that girl was fun to tease" I said voicing my earlier thought, "well I suppose I'd need to find something to wear to this thing" I got up from the table and slung my bag over my shoulder

"Off to spend all your birthday cash?" Cloud asked as I passed him in the doorway,

"You know it" I took my aviators down from the top of my head and put them on, "it's such a nice day maybe I should walk … screw it" I fished my bike keys out of my bag and sped off into town to find something to wear to this stupid date

* * *

**She doesn't seem best pleased does she?**

**But this is a Reno story so she'll get used to the idea soon**


	8. I'm not scared!

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**I can do it like a brother**

**Do it like a dude**

**Grab my crotch; wear my hat low like you**

**Do it like a brother**

**Do it like a dude**

**Grab my crotch; wear my hat low like you**

**

* * *

**

The week flew in much to my dislike and on Friday night I was curling my hair waiting on Rufus' car to come pick me up,

"You look like a princess!" Marlene said sitting on my bed,

"Thanks sweetie, ah son of a –" I bit my lip to stop myself swearing in front of Marlene I didn't want Tifa to reintroduce the swear jar, when Cloud and I had deserted Shin Ra we were swearing like troopers and in an effort to stop us Tifa had a swear jar, "I lost so much money to that jar" I cried quietly, there was the sound of a car pulling up outside,

"Aya Shin Ra's car is here!" Cloud yelled up at me,

"Coming" I yelled back, "Marlene I'll see you later sweets" I dashed out of the room calling goodbye to everyone else and ran out the door with my shoes in my hand, the driver opened the door and I almost threw myself in,

"Didn't know you were so happy to see me yo" Reno laughed after I'd picked myself up from the floor,

"Why are you here?" I asked putting on my shoes,

"It's a date remember, you lost the bet yo" he smirked,

"Yeah I remember" I grumbled,

"Relax it's not like I could actually do anything, you'd probably kill me before I had a chance yo"

"That is true" I began to relax a little and enjoy the ride

* * *

"Aya so happy you made it" Rufus said smiling when I got to the venue of this year's party, once again full of drunken businessmen and their shrew wives,

"Yeah, yeah" I waved a hand dismissively, "Just point me to the booze" Rufus laughed,

"Over there"

"Come on Red, I need to be drunk to enjoy these stupid things" I dragged Reno along by the lapel on his jacket towards the punch table, "two" the guy handed the punch to me in little crystal glasses, "here" I downed my drink in one while Reno just sipped his,

"So you get drunk at every one of these yo?" Reno asked staring at my boobs in the dress I'd found in a charity shop the day before,

"Eyes up here please" I said bored already, "yeah I used to come as Rufus' date when we were younger, back then it was to fund Shin Ra's experiments to better the planet" I said with a hollow laugh, "Rufus was a different guy back then. Kinda cruel if you ask me, wanted to run Shin Ra with an iron fist and did after Sephiroth killed his dad"

"You sure know a lot about what goes on at the top yo" Reno said knocking back his drink,

"Well Rufus and I have been good friends for a long time, he tells me everything. Two more" I snapped at the guy behind the punch bowl gawking at some woman's ass, I must have scared him since he jumped about a foot in the air making me laugh, "Oh here we go" I looked up to where Rufus was about to make his grand welcoming speech

"Ladies and Gentlemen, friends and business partners, welcome to Shin Ra's annual benefit for the planet. In an effort to rebuild after METORfall and the collapse of plate seven we ask that you dig deep and give generously, it's all for a good cause" there was a round of applause, "thank you, thank you, please enjoy your night"

"He hates doing that you know, being nice to all these people. But as he says Shin Ra owes a large debt to the planet and he's just trying to do right by everyone"

"Feel like dancing yo?" Reno asked,

"Why the hell not, you better not have two left feet I'm warning you"

Reno it turned out didn't have two left feet, and somehow the more we drank the better he got granted I had to slap him more than a few times for talking to my boobs but all in all not the worst night ever, "You know Red that was actually fun" I laughed, we were sitting on top of the Shin Ra building and I'd taken my shoes off since they were annoying my happiness,

"Why do you call me that? You have red hair too you know yo" Reno pouted,

"Yeah but mine isn't as _red_ as yours" I exaggerated wildly with my hands, "so therefore you are Red" I laughed again almost falling off the roof,

"Careful yo" Reno grabbed my arm,

"I'll survive if I fall from this height I could probably land on my feet as well" I stood up and wobbled a bit,

"Oh no you don't you're drunk so you won't land on your feet you'll land on your neck and kill yourself yo"

"I won't die if I break my neck, I was a SOLDIER first class, and we were trained to be the best of the best SIR!" I shouted the last part rather loudly,

"I think we'd better go back inside" Reno laughed, "then you can shout at Tseng's door yo"

"You know I technically outrank Tseng, he's just so anal retentive he likes being in charge" I stuck out my tongue, "I may be a tad drunker than I'd planned" I giggled,

"What gave it away yo?" Reno laughed,

"I'm sure I can still walk in a straight line" I went to walk across the roof but Reno still had his hand on my arm and I fell face first into the dirt, "ow, and now I'm sober" I muttered into the dirt,

"How can you be sober after a little fall like that yo?" Reno asked,

"Blame Jenova, I have to drink more than the average person because the Jenova cells filter the alcohol out of my system faster and after falling on my face like that it sent a little shock through my system which registered in the Jenova cells so all the alcohol is flushed out and I'm alert and ready to kick ass" I explained sitting back down beside Reno and dangling my feet over the edge,

"That's both handy and annoying yo" Reno commented,

"Tell me about it, and this isn't even half of what Hojo planned to do to me either. I am like almost all of his experiments unfinished"

"Shit, what else could he do to you yo?"

"You haven't read the files I take it. When I agreed to be Rufus' bodyguard he showed me all the files that had been confiscated from Hojo's labs and there was a list of things as long as your arm of 'procedures' and different things.

But I honestly don't care about that anymore, I like the way my eyes look. It scares the crap out of people when we go places they think I'm gonna go crazy any minute and shoot up the place with my gunblade or cut them into ribbons with my Sai"

"You probably would yo" Reno said seriously,

"True, maybe I already went crazy. After Zack died Cloud and I weren't the same. I mean Cloud had no memories of anything but SOLDIER he didn't remember what they did to him but I remembered everything and no matter where I go I'll always remember" I rubbed the scar on my chest that I'd hidden with make up because the dress wouldn't cover it,

"Yeah but there's no way he can ever come back, didn't Cloud get rid of him last time?"

"That's the thing though. That's why Jenova's head was so damned dangerous. If anyone wanted to they could bring him back whenever and there's a number of Jenova cells Hojo used still unaccounted for.

Vincent says he's been checking the Manor and there aren't any he can find and the old reactors dormant so there's no way anyone could do anything with it.

But at the same time, when we were in Nibelheim at the old manor I could have sworn I saw something out the corner of my eye, something silver and black"

Reno was quiet, "Listen to me ranting on, I was over all this done and dusted and one trip back to Nibelheim and I'm jumping at shadows"

"I think it's natural yo, I'd be scared too if I was you"

"I'm not scared! If I _do_ see that bastard again I'll kill him until he stays dead. I'm going to bed" I snapped, before Reno could say anything I stood up and grabbing my shoes and stormed off down to my room.

I slammed the door behind me throwing my shoes loudly at one wall then turning around and putting my fist through another, "I'm not scared of him!" I said through gritted teeth

"Oh but you are" someone whispered in my ear,

But when I turned around there was no one there

* * *

**Freaky O_O**

**I'd be scared if I was Aya but then again I'm not her**

**Poor Reno he didn't need to be snapped at like that.**

**Hopefully the next chapter should be a little less angst heavy **

**Watching: My torrent of Advent Children Complete, Listening to: Toxic – Glee Cast, Thought of the day: In AC when Reno says "oh good" it makes a chill go down my spine lol**


	9. I need to talk to Cloud

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Coin operated boy **

**Sitting on the shelf he is just a toy**

**But I turn him on and he comes to life **

**Automatic joy **

**That is why I want a coin operated boy**

**

* * *

**

I woke up the next day with someone knocking on my door,

"Aayma are you awake?" Tseng's voice came through the door,

"Yeah I'm up" I rolled out of bed and walked over to the door, "what's going on?" I opened the door and Tseng was standing there with a younger girl behind her, "uh Tseng?"

"This is my sister she's new in Edge and I was supposed to show her around but I have to work today and I was wondering …"

"If I'd show her around for you" I finished, "I'll do it for you no problem I'm just wondering why you're asking me. I'm not Miss Responsible after all"

"I did consider that but you are the only other woman apart from Elena and she's working today …"

"Yeah I get it, alright kid let me get dressed and I'll show you the sights, or what's left of them come on in"

"Thank you Aayma"

"Sure, sure" I waved a hand dismissively at Tseng and ushered the kid into my room, "wait on the bed until I'm done, there's not much entertainment in here since I'm really never here but if you can find something then be my guest"

The girl sat down on my bed while I gathered up my things and took a quick shower, "alright then what's your name?" I asked rather sharply, I was still in a bit of a mood after last night on the roof,

"Rachel" she squeaked obviously intimidated by me barking at her,

"Sorry kid I'm just in a bit of a mood. I had a fight with a friend last night and it was a big one. You ever see a cornered cat? It's got nowhere to go and all out of options, what does it do?"

"Um … lash out?"

"Gold star! I'm like a cornered cat. When my back's against the wall I lash out and last night I lashed out at a good friend so today we will be avoiding him at all costs. Right, off to see the sights" I put on a pair of old pink sunglasses that were sitting on top of the windowsill put them on top of my head and ushered the girl out the door and into the lift, "one thing though, you do not repeat any curse words to your brother nor do you tell him any of the 'local' stories I will be telling you today"

"O-ok" I sighed; this girl was avoiding eye contact for a reason,

"Alright do you know what went down here I take it?"

"I do"

"And following in that train of thought you know about Sephiroth"

"I do"

"And you're avoiding eye contact with me because of my eyes"

"I am"

"Well at least you're honest. Alright take a good look at them" I stooped down to the girls level, she was a few inches shorter than me, she took a minute but she looked dead in my eyes, "alright nothing to be scared of right?" she nodded as the lift pinged and the doors opened, "off we go" I strode out into reception nodding to the girl on the phone and passing the security guards who tipped their hats to me,

"Onee-Chan are you famous?" Rachel asked,

"What? No, I just work here and so everyone knows me. And don't call me 'Onee-Chan' it's Aya"

"Aya"

"First stop, the METEORfall monument, it _did _get blown up last year in all the trouble, stupid remnants, but it was rebuilt, never let it be said Shin Ra wasn't trying to atone for their sins" I stopped rambling for a moment and looked to the girl, "You know about METEOR don't you?" Rachel nodded, "alright stop a second, this whole timid little mouse thing isn't going to earn you any brownie points with me. You need to be assertive, can you do that?"

"Y-yes" I stared at her over my sunglasses, "Yes!"

"Good, now off we go"

I took Rachel around all the 'sites' in Edge telling her all my stories about everything we saw, she kept pace with me pretty well even though I was walking pretty fast compared to her.

Eventually the heat got to me and I had to stop in MERCURTIO's, I took a seat under an umbrella and melted into it,

"Hi Aya, heat getting to you" Kaya asked laughing at me,

"Damn this heat wave, I'm gonna melt some one of these days" Kaya sat down next to me,

"Poor you, so who's your friend?" I looked over and Rachel was staring daggers at Kaya,

"This is Tseng's sister Rachel, Rachel this is Kaya, she's a friend of mine and her boyfriend is a really old friend" Rachel seemed to loosen up a bit,

"Tseng let you out with his sister? Did you knock him out and leave him in the basement somewhere and kidnap this poor girl?"

"Nope, he actually came to my door and asked me if I'd show her around"

"Then Reno's distracting him so he doesn't come looking for you"

"I'm not talking to Reno" I muttered

"Oh? And why not?"

"We … had a fight, I struck out like a cat that gets cornered" Kaya shook her head, "Well Rachel what can I get you?"

"Uh …"

"Two chocolate milkshakes just" I answered for her

"Alright" Kaya got up from the table and went off to get milkshakes, she brought them back as quickly as she could and I almost inhaled mine, "alright that's it I guess, you've seen everything there is to see, well everything I'm allowed to show you anyway. We may as well head back"

"Ok" Rachel followed behind me like a baby duck all the way back to the Shin Ra building where once again I strode bold as brass through reception and over to the lift,

"And remember kid, no swearing or telling tales to your brother or you'll end up an only child" she wasn't saying anything; she was twisting her blouse in her hands and muttering to herself.

It was when the lift doors opened that she threw herself at me planting a kiss on my lips, I was speechless but as it turned out I didn't need to say anything since Tseng was standing in the corridor and saw everything,

"RACHEL!" he fumed,

"O-onii-san" she stuttered,

"What the hell Tseng?" I yelled, "Why didn't you tell me your sister was like this?"

"He doesn't know, no one does" Rachel said still twisting her blouse in her hands,

"Well they do now, how old are you Rachel?"

"I'm eighteen"

"Right well then come with me, Tseng I'll give her back to you in a minute" I took Rachel into my room and found a piece of paper and a pen, "when you get back to Wutai go to 'Club Aphrodite' ask for 'Venus' tell them Aya sent you ok?"

"Ok"

"Good, now out you go and don't you dare tell Tseng I gave you that address" she walked out the door in a bit of a daze and I stood in the doorway and watched them walk off, "I guess I'd better go see if Reno's ok" I left the door open and knocked on Reno's door,

"I didn't think I'd be seeing you yo" he said leaning in the doorway,

"Yeah well I wasn't gonna come down but I figured I should. I'm like a cornered cat" I said for third time, "corner me and I lash out"

Reno laughed, "And what the hell is so funny?" I asked

"You, apologising yo"

"Oh fuck it, if you aren't gonna take this seriously then I'm going home"

"Wait!" he grabbed onto my arm, "let's go for a drive"

"Why?"

"Just humour me ok?"

"Fine" so once again it was back down to reception and into the car park where I climbed on the back of Reno's bike, "where are we even going?" I asked as we sped through the streets,

"No where really" was the response, we zoomed through the town in and out of traffic neither of us talking just enjoying the ride, that was until we tried to stop and Reno's brakes weren't working, "What the hell yo?"

"The brakes have been cut!" I yelled, "You need to get off!"

"No way yo then you'll crash!"

"I'll survive, you won't!" I shoved Reno off the bike and then drove it into a wall to stop it jumping off at the last second, "you ok?" I asked offering a hand to help Reno up off the ground

"Just a few scrapes. But I wonder who cut the breaks yo?"

"I think you know" the voice whispered in my ear again, I whipped around to try and catch the person but once again there was no one there,

"Are ok yo?"

"No, I need to talk to Cloud"

* * *

**What does she need to talk to Cloud about?**

**And who keeps whispering in her ear?**

**All this and more if you keep reading!**

**Watching: American Hot Rod (boring), Listening to: Jessie J – Do it like a dude, Thought of the day: I am on a roll!**


	10. The Forgotten City

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Step inside**

**Walk this way**

**You and me babe**

**Hey**

**Hey **

**Hey**

**

* * *

**

"CLOUD!" I yelled banging through the door,

"What? Who died?" he jumped as the door slammed hard against the wall,

"No one, we need to talk"

"What's going on?"

"When I was in Nibelheim I visited the old manor like I told you" he nodded, "while I was there I thought I saw something but I figured it was my mind playing tricks on me, but these last two days I've been hearing … something"

"You're hearing voices?" Cloud almost laughed but the look on my face stopped him,

"Not voices plural voice singular. A familiar voice, to both of us"

"There's no way" Cloud said immediately, "Last time that was the last time"

"I know that but you'll remember there's missing Jenova cells from Hojo's research that no one can seem to find"

"But Vincent said –" Tifa started

"I know what Vincent said, and I know what I'm hearing. I'm gonna go and find some answers" I cut her off grabbing my backpack from the chair where I'd left it the day we'd gone to the beach. I ran upstairs to my room and filled it full of necessities, then picking up my gunblade in its holster I put it around my waist through the belt loops in my shorts, picked up my Sai and putting them also in the back belt loops of my shorts ran back down stairs.

"What am I missing here yo?" Reno asked,

"Go back to work Reno, and don't tell Rufus anything" I said storming past him and grabbing my bike keys.

I revved the engine and took off to the one place I knew I should start looking for answers, the forgotten city

hr

It took me a day to get to the forgotten city but as I'd expected there was no one around,

"Dammit all" I cursed kicking a rock into the lake, "oops sorry Aeris" I apologised, "you wouldn't happen to know what's going on would you?" I laughed bitterly; "now I really am going crazy I'm talking to a dead girl" I sighed and sat down beside the lake, first things first I suppose, see what my 'brothers' left behind" I searched every inch of the palace of the ancients which took me another full day and found nothing, the only place left to check was the northern cave, "and how the hell am I supposed to get there?" I screamed to the hollow castle

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person-**

Rufus Shin Ra was worried and it showed. He was pacing his office floor so much that he was really considering replacing the carpet.

Aya had been gone for a week and no one had seen or heard anything about where she went, Reno and Rude found her bike in the forgotten city abandoned. Her phone was either switched off, dead or she'd thrown it away somewhere.

And it wasn't just Rufus Shin Ra who was worried about Aya. All four Turks were working around the clock to try and find any trace of her, the only clue they had was Reno's information that she'd been hearing someone whispering in her ear and the knowledge that she thought she'd seen Sephiroth at the old Shin Ra Manor and from what Cloud and Tifa had told them she was looking for answers.

They'd also heard from Reno that she was worried about the missing Jenova cells from Hojo's research that no one could find and that she was afraid of someone creating another Sephiroth or worse completing Hojo's plans for her.

Vincent had been studying the old journals Hojo kept with any reference to either Aya or Sephiroth; Rufus stopped pacing at the sound of shouting outside,

"LET ME GO DAMMIT!"

Rufus flew to the door and found all four Turks trying to forcibly restrain Aya but she was stronger than the four of them combined and had taken Reno's Electro Mag Rod and shocked everyone,

"Aya you're ok!" Rufus ran to her but she stopped him dead with one look, her eyes were cold and dead,

"I want all the files on Sephiroth, Hojo, Lucrecia and me" she said, her voice sounded like two slabs of cold stone hitting against each other,

"You've seen them all" Rufus said, "why don't you sit down and we can talk. You've been gone for a week"

"I don't care how long I've been gone. I want those files and I _will_ take them by force if I have to"

"You don't need to do that. I'll give them to you" Rufus said, "come with me"

Aya followed Rufus down to the records room, "this whole section relates to you, Sephiroth, Hojo and Lucrecia's work"

"You can go now" she said coldly,

"But Aya –" she gave him another stony glare and Rufus backed out. When he got back up to his office Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude were all up and looking worse for wear,

"I don't understand how she could do that" Elena was saying, "I mean I know she was in SOLDIER and about what happened but how can she over power four people"

"It's because she's stubborn as hell. Tseng call Cloud and tell him she's here. She won't want to see him but it'll give them piece of mind to know she's safe" Tseng left taking his cell phone out of his pocket,

"Reno, Rude I need you to find Vincent Valentine he's the only one she'll listen to right about now" Reno and Rude nodded and left,

"Elena I want you to take her down something to eat, she hasn't eaten in days"

"How can you tell Sir?"

"I've known her since she was nineteen. I know her habits and I know when she hasn't eaten in days"

"Is she going to be ok Sir?" Elena asked again,

"I don't know Elena, I don't know"

* * *

**-Seventh Heaven-**

It had been a week since Aya had left and every day Shin Ra called to tell us the same thing, no news about her. He had everyone out searching for her but no one had found her.

Then the phone rang again,

_"She's shown up" _Tseng said on the other end of the line, Cloud almost dropped the phone,

"Where is she?" he asked

_"She's here in Shin Ra. She's in the records room she won't talk to anyone she just wants to look over the files from Hojo and Lucrecia's experiments"_

"We're on our way" Cloud hung up the phone and collected himself for a moment before calling for Tifa,

"What is it? Oh my god she's dead isn't she?"

"No Tifa calm down, she's ok. She's in Shin Ra in their records room" Tifa actually lost feeling in her legs and fell into Cloud,

"What's she looking for there?" Tifa asked after regaining feeling in her legs,

"All the records about what Hojo and Lucrecia did apparently" Cloud said opening the back door of Seventh Heaven where his bike was parked to find Reno about to knock on the door, "we know she's back, Tseng called"

"We're looking for Valentine yo" Reno said, "Have you seen him?"

"You should ask Kaya she'll be in work now she's usually the only person who knows where he goes" Tifa said,

"Thanks" Rude said as he and Reno ran off to the ice cream parlour to find Kaya,

"I just hope she's ok" Tifa said as she mounted the back of Cloud's bike,

"Me too"

* * *

**-** **MERCURTIO's-**

Kaya had been distracted all week; she was forgetting orders bring the wrong orders to the wrong table. Her manager had looked past it since she had an exemplary record and when she explained about Aya being missing they offered her some time off but she turned them down.

She needed to keep active, keep working, keep smiling, don't think about what could have happened to Aya out there on her own. Of course she knew Aya was more than capable of taking care of herself growing up alone and everything.

She didn't know all the details about what Aya went through when she was a SOLDIER all she knew was what Vincent had told her that she was attacked by Sephiroth the night he went insane and went on his rampage against the planet and after it she suffered some horrible abuse at the hands of the demented Professor Hojo who did terrible things to Vincent also.

It wasn't until she saw the familiar shock of red hair that Kaya broke down, she fell to her knees and started to cry uncontrollably,

"Kaya what's wrong?" her manager asked

"My friend, the one who's missing –" she choked out

"What about her? Is it bad news?"

"It's good news actually" Reno said offering his hand to help Kaya up, "She's shown up today we can take you to her if you want but we need you yo help find Valentine yo"

_#I'll never be, a knight in armour with a sword in hand or kamikaze fighter. Don't count on me to storm the barricades and take a stand#_

Kaya checked her phone to see who was calling, Vincent

_"Kaya they've found Aya"_

"I know, Reno and Rude are here. They're looking for you"

_"I'll meet you at Shin Ra" _Kaya hung up the phone

"He's going to meet us there" she wiped away the tears from her face as Rude took her arm and guided her all the way to Shin Ra

* * *

**So there you go a chapter full of angst and mystery **

**Next chapter**

**Where she went and what she found out**

**Keep er light

* * *

Also a sidebar here, people have been telling me that Ayama is a weird name and yes, yes it is. It's actually my cousin's name, it's old irish means "queen of the faires" or at least that's what my aunt tells me. I just thought it was odd and kinda pretty so that's where that comes from. The last name was a google copy/paste thing when I was bored, does it really matter what her last name is anyway? And I'd just like to ask that if you read say the info and don't like what you read then don't send me messages about how shit the story is, I have six beta readers who all approve a chapter before it's typed and you're all making less of their hard work.**

**Thanks

* * *

**

**Watching: The fire die out, Listening to: Nickelback – I'd come for You, Thought of the day: Early mornings kill **


	11. Aya's Back

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**The wonderful thing about Tiggers**

**Is Tiggers are wonderful things!**

**Their tops are made out of rubber**

**Their bottoms are made out of springs!**

**They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy**

**Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!**

**But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is**

**I'm the only one**

**

* * *

**

I was sitting in the records room immersed in the boxes of files when someone placed a hand on my shoulder, out of reflex I grabbed the arm connected to the hand and flipped the person who turned out to be Cloud over my shoulder keeping a hold of the arm and pulling it up while placing my foot on the joint,

"What do you want?" I asked not letting go of his arm,

"We were worried about you, wondered where you'd gone. You've been gone a week" I let go of his arm and let him stand up,

"I know how long I've been gone" I went back to reading the files,

"Marlene and Denzel miss you" Cloud tried again,

"And I miss them to but this is important. Is Vincent here?"

"I'm here" he said from the doorway where Tifa Tseng, Elena, Reno, Rude, Rufus and even Kaya where also, apparently they thought it was safer for Cloud to go in first,

"Do you have those old journals on you?" he handed me a bundle of old leather bound books with a red ribbon tied around them, "good"

I sat back down and started going through the files and the corresponding journal entries,

"Aya" Cloud tried reaching out to me again but I slapped his hand away,

"Leave me alone"

"But –

"I said leave, me, alone" I said through gritted teeth to Cloud standing up to face him and placing a hand on my gunblade still at my hip, "I'm busy"

"Ok" Cloud walked past me careful not to step on any files and left the room taking Tifa with him, Rufus had the good sense to send Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude away but not the good sense to leave himself.

Instead he came into the room and grabbed my arm before I could react, he pulled the sleeve of my crop jacket up and his eyes clouded over at the mark tattooed on my arm,

"Aya, what's this?"

"None of your damn business" I said wrenching my arm from his grip and covering up my arm, "now leave me the hell alone" I yelled in his face,

"Fine" he left but Vincent stayed,

"What do you want Vincent?"

"I know what you're trying to do and trust me it's not a good idea" he said

"There are missing cells Vincent, I'm going to track them down no matter who says or does what" I said not bothering to look at him,

"And do what with them?"

"Destroy them, once and for all"

"How do you hope to accomplish that?"

"I'm going to fucking drown them in Aeris' church" I answered curtly Vincent just sighed and left me to my files.

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person-**

"She won't listen to reason" Rufus was saying as Vincent walked into his office, "She's too far gone, I saw a freshly inked tattoo on her arm that can only mean trouble. Did she say anything to you?"

"She's looking for the missing cells" Vincent said taking Kaya's hand, she was taking this harder than the rest since she didn't know Aya as well and this was the first time she'd ever seen Aya's dark side,

"What does a tattoo have to do with anything?" Kaya squeaked huddling in close to Vincent,

"It means she's been in contact with her old gang. It's probably where she's been for the last week" Cloud sighed,

"She was in a gang!" Kaya's eyes were as wide as saucers,

"I'll tell you about it another day" Vincent said placing a hand on her back to calm her down,

"Do you think she'll stay" Tifa asked Vincent directly,

"For now, she's determined to find the missing cells"

"She's scared someone could use them again yo" Reno said from the corner of the room,

"She told you that?" Rufus asked,

"Well no, but she said something about it the night of that benefit, yo. Then she got mad and went to her room"

"I thought so, she'll never admit to it but I'm sure she's scared out of her mind after Nibelheim"

"What _did_ she see out there?" Tifa asked,

"She thought she saw Sephiroth" everyone in the room froze,

"So that's why she wants to find the cells, if she really did see him then –" Tifa didn't finish her sentence because Aya had appeared at the door,

"I'm leaving" she announced, "don't come after me"

"Aya wait!" Rufus ran over to her and put an arm on her shoulder,

"Don't touch me" she hissed, "You knew didn't you"

"Aya what –"

"Don't act stupid with me Rufus. You knew what was going on it was only when you found out it had something to do with me you shut it down" everyone stood in disbelief,

"Is this true sir?" Rude asked

"It is. I knew what Hojo was doing and when I found out what he'd done to Aya I told him to stop. I was a different man back then"

Aya laughed a short bitter sharp cruel laugh, "well then consider this my resignation" she threw her special access pass on the ground, "do what you want with the crap in that room I don't want it"

Aya turned on her heel and walked away from the group pulling a face mask from her pocket and tying it around her mouth,

"Aya don't do this!" Tifa yelled running after her, "Don't go back there, please just come home!"

"Home?" Aya laughed her cruel laugh again, "I have no home" she walked away from Tifa who stood stock still in shock, watching as Aya's back disappeared out the window and down the fire escape not looking back once at the group of people she called her friends and family.

* * *

**Ooh I'm getting good at the angst bit **

**Lol**

**Don't know if that's a good thing or not actually **

**Creates drama which is good for this rewrite since the last one didn't have too much drama in it **

**Watching: Nothing, Listening to: Glee –Telephone, Thought of the day: Tired D:**


	12. The Kids Are Gone

**We're having the best time living the fast life**

**Thinking were just too damn young to die**

**Aint waiting for next time to see all the Bright lights,**

**To see it all**

**We'll drive in the fast lane out on the freeway**

**Tell us to slow down starts a car chase.**

**As long as we've got each other we've**

**Got it made.**

* * *

It was two weeks before anyone came looking for me, and predictably it was Reno,

"Hey Aya we caught that Turk sniffing around in our territory" Rhea said, when I'd left Shin Ra that night I'd called her and told her I was putting the gang back together, since she had her contract bought as well when she was sixteen she handed in her notice to Club Paradise and together we reformed the old gang,

"Bring him in here" I was sat in a bar on the outskirts of Edge where no one ever ventured since it was gang territory and each gang defended their territory violently,

"Aya what the hell yo" Reno asked as he was thrown down in front of me,

"We took this off him" she threw me Reno's Electro Mag Rod, "I thought Turks carried guns not tasers"

"It's not a taser yo" Reno protested,

"Shut up" I barked, "what do you want Reno?"

"The boss wants you to come back to Edge, and so do I yo" he tried to stand up but I shocked him in the stomach,

"If you know what's good for you you'll stay down"

"I guess I don't know what's good for me yo" Reno said trying to stand up again, again I shocked him

"Next time I'm going to hit you with it"

"Bring it on yo" Reno said once again trying to stand up so I hit him as hard as I could across the face and he fell to his knees and spat out some blood,

"Now you're going to leave or the girls are going to make you"

"I guess you'll have to make me yo" Reno said spitting out more blood,

"You heard the man. I think I'll keep this" I tucked the Electro Mag Rod into my gunblade holster and watched as Rhea dragged Reno out of the bar, once he was out of sight he was out of my mind and I sat down to enjoy the rest of my drink.

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person-**

When Reno arrived back at Shin Ra he was limping, those girls were tough. They'd broken all the fingers on one hand and cracked at least four ribs, not to mention kicked the ever loving crap out of him.

He used the back entrance to the building so he wouldn't scare anyone in reception with his appearance,

_"The boss is going to kill me yo" _he thought as he held his cracked ribs with his broken fingers making his way up the back stairs to the President's office,

"Oh my god Reno what happened to you!" Elena cried as soon as she saw him, "who did this to you?" she ran over to help him walk to the President's office

"Aya" he said wincing at the pain in his ribs,

"Aya did this!" Elena helped Reno sit down on one of the chairs opposite the President's desk,

"Not all of it" he said trying to find a way to sit without his ribs hurting, "just the facial yo" he laughed and again winced at the pain shooting through his ribs,

"The girls in her gang did the rest" Rufus said standing up from behind his desk, "I'm assuming. I figured she might do this, it's the best way to find out information that should have been buried a long time ago"

Reno couldn't do anything but nod, he was about to pass out from the pain in his body, "Rude take Reno and get him cleaned up. Tseng call Cloud and tell him we've found Aya and she's back with her gang.

Elena go find out everything you can about the gangs living on the outskirts, especially Aya's gang"

"Sir" all three Turks said at once.

Tseng pulled out his phone and dialled the number for Seventh Heaven.

Rude helped Reno of the seat and out of the office and Elena followed.

Rufus Shin Ra walked to his window from where he could see all the way to the outskirts of Edge, gang territory,

"What are you doing out there Aya?" he asked putting a hand on the window as if he could reach out and touch her, to bring her back to them.

* * *

**-Seventh Heaven-**

_Ring_

_Ring_

_Ring _

_Ring_

"Hello Strife Delivery Service you name it we deliver it" Marlene said reading from the piece of paper Tifa had given her,

_"Hello can I speak to Tifa or Cloud?" _a man's voice said on the other end of the line,

"They aren't here. They're looking for Aya" Marlene said,

_"Ok can you tell them Tseng called? And tell them she's on the outskirts of town" _Tseng said politely

"Ok" Marlene wrote down exactly what Tseng had said on the piece of paper Tifa had written on,

_"This is Marlene correct?" _Tseng asked,

"Yes"

_"Don't worry about Aya, she'll come back soon" _

"Tifa said she was looking for someone and wouldn't be back until she found who she was looking for"

_"The person she's looking for has gone back to the life stream and once she remembers this she'll come home"_

"Ok"

_"Goodbye Marlene"_

Marlene hung up the phone, "If she's forgotten someone needs to remind her" she thought aloud,

"Who's forgotten what?" Denzel asked coming into the small room where Marlene was standing,

"Aya's forgotten the person she's looking for has gone back to the life stream, we need to remind her. The man on the phone told me where she was"

"We should go and get her then and bring her home" Denzel said, "then everyone will be happy again"

Marlene nodded, "I'll leave a note for Tifa telling her where we've gone"

* * *

**-Aya's POV-**

It was another week before I heard from anyone else, this time it was Cloud and he wasn't happy at all,

"WHERE ARE THEY" he yelled barging past all the girls stationed outside the bar I'd been doing all my reading in,

"Where are who?" I answered hand on my gunblade,

"Marlene and Denzel where are they?" Cloud yelled again,

"How should I know, they live in your house!" I yelled back,

"They've been missing for a week!"

That knocked the air out of me, missing,

"What happened?" I asked taking my hand off my gunblade,

"Tseng called to say you'd been found out here and you'd kicked the crap out of Reno. He also said he'd called the house and Marlene answered the phone.

So Tifa and I rushed home in case they thought about coming for you since you wouldn't say no to them and sure enough they'd left a note saying they'd gone to bring you home so no one would be said anymore but when we got this far no one had seen them so we figured they'd gotten lost and went back home.

They didn't and we haven't seen them for a week"

"Boss this just came for you" a new girl who by the look of her wasn't much older than sixteen handed me a white envelope, I opened it and took out the piece of paper on the inside,

"If you ever want to see those children you're so attached to again meet me under the old Sector Seven plate tomorrow at dawn" I read, "Son of a bitch!" I crumpled the paper in my hand,

"Who gave you this?" Cloud asked the girl

"S-some guy he didn't say who he was"

"Did he have silver hair?" Cloud asked her again,

"N-no it was brown"

"Why would you ask that Cloud" I demanded, "unless you know something I don't"

Cloud sighed,

"I'd kept this a secret for this reason, if you knew you'd have gone long ago"

"Known what? Out with it Cloud"

"Last year, when _he_ came back, he … mentioned you"

"Mentioned me? What do you mean mentioned"

"He said he'd be back for his 'immortal beloved' you"

"I knew I wasn't crazy. What's your name kid?"

"Izumi Hikage"

"Tell everyone that I'm going to get some kids back and I'll be back tomorrow"

"Ok"

"Let's go" I grabbed my jacket and bike keys, "we have some kids to save"

* * *

**Who took the kids?**

**What did Sephiroth mean by 'immortal beloved'?**

**All this and more in the next thrilling chapter of Bulletproof Heart**

**Message and Rate**

* * *

**Watching: Advent Children Complete, Listening to: Steve Mac – Paddy's Revenge, Thought of the day: YAY A LAN CONNECTION –dances for joy–**


	13. The Journals of Lucrecia Crescent

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**There he goes **

**My baby walks so slow,**

**Sexual**

**Tic tac toe**

**Yeah I know we both know **

**It isn't time**

**But could you be m-mine**

**

* * *

**

It took all night to reach the ruins under the old plate, neither Cloud nor I saying much to one another mostly because I'm sure Cloud was still blaming me for the kids coming to find me and getting abducted or lost in the process.

The sun was coming up over the collapsed plate when Cloud and I finally parked our bikes, turning the engine off I took my gunblade out of its holster as Cloud took the parts of his sword out from their compartments in his own bike,

"I'll go east, you go west" I said pointing with my gunblade; Cloud nodded and put two pieces of the sword together.

Walking around slowly all my SOLDIER training was coming back, I assumed the same was true for Cloud even if he never really made SOLDIER,

"AYA" someone yelled, I whirled around and Marlene and Denzel were running towards me hand in hand,

"Thank god you guys are ok!" I held my arms out and hugged the kids tightly; "I need to call Cloud and tell him where we are" I took out my phone and called Cloud's number

_"So your phone is working after all" _Cloud said snidely on the other end,

"I've found the kids"

_"Where are you?" _

"About 300 yards from the bikes"

_"I'll be there asap"_

"We came to look for you and we got lost" Marlene cried, I could tell from her puffy red eyes that she'd been doing a lot of crying, and Denzel too,

"You got lost? Did you talk to anyone, did someone tell you to come here today?"

"No we've been here all week. When we left we got to the church and we didn't know where to go from there so we tried to come home but we got lost and ended up here.

We stayed put because that's what you told us to do if we ever got lost and someone would come find us"

"I did tell you that" I smiled at them, "but why did you come looking for me? Did someone say something to you guys?"

"Mr Tseng said you were looking for someone who'd gone back to the life stream but you'd forgotten so we came to remind you" Marlene said,

I sighed, when I went back to Edge I'd have to have a serious talk with Tseng about talking to kids, no wonder his sister didn't tell him she was a lesbian, "He's half right. The person I'm looking for might not have gone back to the life stream like everyone thinks"

"You found them!" Cloud said when he caught up with us

"Yeah so now you guys have to go back with Cloud" I said straightening up and putting my gunblade back in its holster,

"No! You have to come home with us!" Denzel said breaking away from Cloud with Marlene following,

"I know it's hard but you guys have to be grownups ok? No tears" I knelt down to put a hand on each of their shoulders,

"You just don't want them to cry because it'll make it harder for you to leave" Cloud spat angrily,

"No actually Cloud, contrary to popular belief I'm not just doing this for myself" I said standing up and squaring up to Cloud,

"Don't lie Aya, or are you trying to convince yourself that this isn't all for you?"

"I'm not lying Cloud, 'How are you supposed to look after yo family if you can't look after yo-self' if I don't find those cells or him then he could hurt my family"

"Like you care"

"Please stop arguing!" Marlene said running between the two of us, "Aya please can't you just come home?"

"I can't sweetie, I promise though as soon as I find who I'm looking for I'll come right home. But you have to promise me you'll be grown up and stay at home with Cloud and Tifa from now on" I bent down to Marlene's level and extended my little finger on my right hand to her, "ok"

"Ok" she grabbed my little finger with her own and we shook,

"Denzel I'm going to need you to look after Marlene as well" I extended my little finger to Denzel as well and he shook it, "I'll be home before you know it"

I watched the kids get on the back of Cloud's bike and drive off in the direction of 7th Heaven, "Alright then let's find out if I really am crazy shall we?" I took my gunblade back out of its holster and carefully inspected everywhere I could.

* * *

It was well into midmorning and I hadn't found anything "alright its official, I'm crazy" I sighed, "maybe I should just go home"

"Aw quitting already are we" once more I heard a voice in my ear and once more I whipped around and there was no one there

"AGAIN WITH THE VOICE" I screamed kicking over a rock, "hang on" under the rock I'd kicked over was a leather bound book _just _like the ones I was already reading, Hojo's notes but this one, this one was different, this one was personal,

"The Journal of Lucrecia Crescent" I read aloud, I flipped through the first few pages and I couldn't help as a smile spread across my face, "jack fucking pot!"

I jumped up from my seat and decided to inspect the rest of the area finding another note, "If you want to find the rest of the journals they are located in the Crystal Caves" I read aloud, "looks like I'm going to the Crystal Caves" I put my gunblade back in its holster and ran to my bike the journal still in my hand

* * *

**-3****rd**** person- **

He watched her go, renewed enthusiasm for her quest, what she didn't know was that her quest would lead her straight to him and when they were re-united she would ascend to a higher plane of existence and together they would complete the work he failed to. He saw that the reason he failed quest he was destined to finish was because she wasn't by his side but that wouldn't be a problem soon, not if she followed his clues like he knew she would

* * *

**It just gets creepier and creepier doesn't it?**

**Lol**

**I guess I'm just good at writing creepy ass stuff**

**So who exactly is giving Aya all these clues?**

**And what did she find in that journal? **

**Keep reading and find out!**

**Watching: ER, Listening to: David Guetta ft Kelly Rolland – Commander, Thought of the day: I'm apparently one of the 'lads' … I need to learn how to put up shelves now**


	14. Fast Acting Paralytic

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**It's a god awful small affair**

**To the girl with the mousy hair **

**But her Mummy is yelling no**

**And her Daddy has told her to go**

**But her friend is nowhere to be seen**

**Now she walks through a sunken dream**

**To the seat with the clearest view**

**And she's hooked to the silver screen**

**

* * *

**

I was planning my trip to the Crystal Caves and reading through the journal I'd found under the Plate, it gave me a firsthand account of the original experiment.

Finally some real facts that I could use, I was getting close to finding my answer, where there still missing cells? Or did they disappear last year with the remnants in the rain?

I still had so many questions but I was getting close to answers, that was until Rhea showed up in the small room in the house we'd been living in, it was someone's house once upon a time but when METEOR hit most people moved away from Midgar and Edge to Kalm or Wutai or Junon of course no one wanted to go to Nibelheim, that's where all the trouble started after all,

"What's wrong Rhea?"

"That Red headed Turk is back" she sighed,

"I'm coming" I followed her down to the basement of the house where Reno had been subdued and tied to a chair, "wake him up" I said folding my arms, one of the girls threw a bucket of water over him,

"What the hell yo" he asked after his rude awakening,

"What are you doing back here Reno? Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

"I'm a slow learner yo" he smiled, "I just want to talk, five minutes yo that's all I want"

"You've got two, someone untie him" the girl with the bucket set it down and undid the ropes binding Reno's hands, "talk, what are you doing here?"

"I'm not here to make you come back –"

"Then what _are_ you doing here?" I asked sharply

"I guess I just like you yo" Reno said leaning forward and kissing me taking me off guard, and then he fell in a heap on the ground,

"He'll be out for about an hour, put him back in the chair and someone watch him. Call me when he comes too"

I walked out of the small basement and back to my room where I became re-immersed in the journals cross referencing things from Hojo's experiment logs to Lucrecia's personal experiences and notes.

When Reno came to Rhea came back into my room and once more I followed her down into the small basement, "Again? What the hell is going on yo?"

"It's a fast acting paralytic, I wear it on my lips for protection, if what I think is happening is happening and from what Cloud told me I need it, so once again I'm going to ask you. Why are you here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were alright after seeing the kids again" Reno muttered,

"Oh I'm fine but you won't be. If you didn't learn your lesson last time about coming here then I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach it to you again myself. Everyone out!" I ordered and the small basement emptied leaving just Reno and I, "I really hate to do this Reno but if you think you can just walk in here into my territory whenever you like and you a Turk then I'm going to have to hurt you" I drew my fist back and slammed it into Reno's nose as hard as I could feeling the cartilage shatter and hearing the satisfying crunch to let me know I'd been successful in breaking it.

When I had finished with Reno I left him in the chair in the basement, "someone take him to Edge and leave him in a dump somewhere then make a call to Shin Ra, tell them there's a Turk in a ditch. I have places I need to be"

I went back upstairs and packed my backpack for the three day journey to the Crystal Caves, it would be long but at the end I would finally have some answers to the questions and maybe even the location of the missing cells, I could go back to the kids and just hope they forgive me for leaving.

* * *

**Short one but I really can't put much more in this chapter or I'll have nothing to write for future chapters and it'll mess with my plan that I spent all day on today (22/01/2011) **

**Stay tuned loyal fans as we kick this story up a gear and a half!**

**Watching: Agnes Brown, Listening to: Goats Don't Shave – Biddy from Sligo/Connaught Man's Rambles, Thought of the day: I like warming my feet by the fire :)**


	15. Dammit Aya

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Wake up**

**Grab beer**

**Grab rear**

**Shave beard**

**Put on some scene gear**

**Gotta get drunk**

**Till my Mom wakes up**

**Break up with my girlfriend so I can bang sluts**

**

* * *

**

When I came to I was in my room at Shin Ra and my torso was covered in bandages, my left ankle too was covered in bandages, elevated above the bed. I hurt everywhere, I'd had my fair share of beatings in my time as a Turk even before growing up in the slums of Midgar it was a teeth and nails way of growing up.

But this, this was different. I'd never been beaten this badly before and not by someone with Jenova cells making them ten times stronger than I was myself, the thing was – I let her do it. Whatever it was about Aya I let her do it to me,

"You're awake" Rude was sitting in a chair beside the bed,

"How long have I been out?" I asked

"Two days" was the answer, "I'll tell the director you're up" Rude left the room and I could hear him talking to Elena outside, seconds later Elena poked her head around the door,

"What happened if you don't mind me asking" she came into the room and sat down in the chair previously occupied by Rude,

"Aya's girls jumped me then knocked me out. The one that worked in the Host Club, Aya gave her my Electro Mag Rod and she shocked me in the back of the neck yo.

When I came to I was in a small basement and all the girls were standing around me, I couldn't tell you who was who, they all wore face masks and Aya was standing in front of me, she let me go so I could talk to her for two minutes and I kissed her" Elena let out a small squeak, "she had this paralytic on her lips and it knocked me out for an hour. When I came to I was in the basement again and all the girls were standing around me I couldn't tell you who was who they all wore face masks. But Aya sent them all out and she kicked the crap out of me yo with her own two hands"

"You shouldn't have gone down there" the boss was standing in the doorway, Tseng had probably went to him when Rude went to report I was awake, "Aya's driven to finish this mission she's on and if any of us go down there we're standing in her way and she'll not let that slide"

"I just needed to make sure she was ok yo" I said pitifully, Aya was making an idiot out of me but I wasn't going to let that stand in the way of how I felt about her,

"You feel something for her don't you Reno?" the boss asked,

"I think so yo" I answered, I wasn't sure myself what I felt I just knew I felt something, the boss laughed,

"Get your rest Reno, you took a serious beating"

"Sir" everyone left the room and I sighed looking out the window, "Aya what are you searching for?"

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person 7****th**** Heaven-**

Another week went by since Cloud had seen Aya and he was wallowing in guilt, he'd been so angry with her, he'd blamed her for Marlene and Denzel leaving when it was his own fault for not explaining to them why Aya had left, his anger had clouded his judgement.

_Ring_

_Ring_

_Ring _

_Ring_

"Hello Strife Delivery Service you name it we deliver it" Cloud snapped up the phone on his desk,

_"Hello Cloud" _Rufus Shin Ra's voice said on the other end of the line,

"Have you got news on Aya?" Cloud asked,

_"I do. Reno went to see her two days ago apparently and she wasn't best pleased to see him"_

"What's the damage this time?"

_"A broken nose, four bruised ribs on top of the already cracked ones, a sprained ankle and some superficial bruising, according to Reno she did it herself this time with her own two hands" _

Cloud sighed, Aya was becoming more violent with the people she thought were going to see her to stop her from whatever she was searching for, be it answers or missing cells or even the devil himself, something had to be done, "I'll go and see her myself, at least I'll be able to fend off her attacks if it comes down to it"

_"Do you really think that's a good idea?" _Shin Ra asked,

"It's the only thing that will stop her from killing Reno the next time he goes down to see her" Cloud said,

_"Alright, well please call when you get back" _

"Sure" Cloud hung up the phone and sighed again, "Tifa?" he called,

"Was it bad news?" she asked looking concerned

"Reno went to see her again. She broke his nose, bruised four ribs, sprained his ankle and generally just let him have it. She did it herself this time, with her own two hands. I'm going to go down and see her"

"Are you sure?" Tifa asked,

"I'm the only one who can actually stand up to her" Cloud said taking Tifa's hand, "I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll have my phone on all the time I'm there"

"Be careful"

"I will, I promise"

Cloud ran down the stairs and out the back door of the bar, mounting his bike and driving off towards gang territory, when he got there the first girl he saw was Rhea an old friend of Aya's from the Host Club, "I want to see her"

"Too bad, she's not here" Rhea said,

"What do you mean she's not here?" Cloud asked,

"She left after we dropped off that Turk" Rhea said,

"Where did she go then?" Cloud asked,

"I'm not about to tell you"

"Damn it Aya!" Cloud cursed turning his bike around and driving back to Seventh Heaven wondering how he was going to tell Tifa Aya had left and he had no idea where she was.

* * *

**Bit of a filler chapter really**

**The next one is brilliant promise**

**Watching: Benidorm, Listening to: Porno Graffiti – Melissa, Thought of the day: I'm getting rightly though these chapters**


	16. Taken

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Whenever I'm alone **

**I just wanna be wit cha**

**Please don't take me wrong if I take a dirty picture**

**Whenever you're alone boy I got something to give ya**

**Will you play along if I take a dirty picture?**

**

* * *

**

It took three days to get to the Crystal Caves, but it was worth it, I was finally going to find the answers I'd been looking for, it surprised me that I'd never thought of Lucrecia's personal journals before. I mean, who better to tell me what went on than his actual biological Mummy, plus what I was beginning to find in Hojo's was making me want to be literally sick.

When I finally did reach the Crystal Caves and found Lucrecia's crystal coffin I dismounted my bike and decided to go over and pay my respects, she was just trying to find ways to better the planet before she got sucked into the mess that became Sephiroth,

"I don't blame you" I said to her, "I've been reading your journal, I know you didn't think we should have been messing around with Jenova cells, alright lady let's find out what you know"

Taking my gunblade out of its holster I checked under every rock until I found an old tattered box with the tape sealing it peeling off at the edges, taking one of my Sai out from my belt loop I carefully opened the box, "eureka" I said softly, something about this place commanded silence, I took some of the files out of the box and flipped through them, they all had Lucrecia's handwriting and a lot of them where about Vincent and his big bad Turk days, putting them to one side and promising myself and Lucrecia I'd give them to him when I saw him again when all this was over I finally found the files about the Sephiroth experiment.

From what I could gather the experiment was to firstly see how the Jenova cells would react with a living person and since those tests went ok the next step was to introduce the cells to a foetus and from there create the biggest, baddest SOLDIER ever seen.

So Lucrecia got herself knocked up and started shooting up Jenova cells on a daily basis until the baby was born, then when the baby was born it was taken away from her and named by Hojo. And so the kid grew up in the lab every aspect of its progress monitored day after day, and day after day receiving injections of Jenova cells until he was old enough to become the ultimate weapon he was being trained to be.

And so Sephiroth joined SOLDIER and rose to the top almost immediately just like Hojo had planned, then I came along.

I was recorded in Hojo's notes as SOLDIER #626 initially but when he saw how well I took to the Jenova cells he began to pay more attention to me. The same was recorded in Lucrecia's journal,

_'There was a girl who came in that day, Aayma she said her name was. She had a gang tattoo on her arm but she didn't carry herself like a lot of the kids who came through who were in one gang or another when I asked her about it she said she'd spent some time as a hostess._

_After receiving the injection of Jenova cells most people have a violent reaction, a high fever and nausea that lasts for two days which is why the injections are given out on a Friday so by the Monday the recruit is well rested and ready for duty but Aayma was different, the needle didn't faze her and she didn't bleed like almost every other recruit._

_On the Saturday I went to check on all the recruits, every one of them was predictably ill except for Aayma she was up and about, I questioned her on it asking her if she felt ill at all like the rest of the recruits who received the injections the previous day and she replied no, she felt fine._

_I reported this back to Hojo and he didn't react, simply saying if she didn't show symptoms today she would tomorrow. _

_She didn't._

_And that's when he took an interest in her, I should have seen the signs back then and perhaps been able to stop him doing what he did to that poor girl, I blame myself'_

"I don't blame you" I whispered

"Blame her for what?" someone asked, I jumped up gunblade in hand ready to pull the trigger,

"Vincent?" I put the gunblade down, "what are you doing here?"

"I come here often" he replied looking up at Lucrecia,

"Does Kaya know?"

"No" Vincent looked down, "what don't you blame her for?" Vincent asked changing the subject,

"She felt bad about what happened to me, thinks she could have stopped it, blames herself" I could always talk so easily to Vincent about what happened to me, having something similar happen to himself he could empathise, "I'm getting close Vincent, I just need to take these journals and compare them to the ones I already have and I'm sure I'll find my answer"

"What if you don't like the answer you find" he asked

"I already don't like some of the things I've found" I shuddered,

"Like what?" Vincent asked,

"In Hojo's notes he writes that since Jenova took such a shine to me he was going to breed me with Sephiroth when the experiment was finished and create lots of genetically engineered super soldiers.

Sephiroth probably saw those notes as well which is why he told Cloud he'd be back for his 'immortal beloved' a year ago"

"And here I am"

Vincent and I whirled around and there he was, standing on top of a mound of Crystals,

"Sephiroth, I knew I wasn't crazy!" I cheered,

"Not the best time to gloat Aya" Vincent said taking Cerberus from its holster

"Right" I took my own gunblade from its holster,

"Step aside Valentine; I won't have you stand in the way of my immortal beloved anymore"

"Ok, gross. I wouldn't touch you with a forty foot barge pole with the cure for Geo Stigma on the end"

"I see your mind has been corrupted by those who wish to keep you from me"

Sephiroth charged at Vincent with his Masume drawn and hate in his eyes, Vincent was able to doge his first attack but the Second caught him off guard and Sephiroth sent him flying into a pile of rather jagged looking rocks and he was knocked unconscious,

"Thanks Vincent but I think I can handle this on my own"

"I don't want to fight you my love" Sephiroth said, "just come with me and we can be together as Mother intended"

"I'm not going anywhere with you" I said drawing my Sai,

"Your mind is more corrupted than I thought, never fear beloved I will fix you"

"I don't need fixed!" I yelled charging at Sephiroth who dodged my attack, "get back here and fight you bastard!"

"Now, now beloved there's no need for such language" Sephiroth said from behind me, before I had a chance to react he brought the hilt of his Masume down on the back of my head, "forgive me beloved" was the last thing I heard before everything went dark

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person-**

Vincent woke with a start, everything hurt, "Aya?" he called, no response, he could see her Sai and her gunblade lying on the ground where she last stood, that could only mean she'd been unsuccessful in fighting off Sephiroth and he'd gone somewhere with her.

Vincent cursed his inability to protect her. He knew he'd have to go back to 7th Heaven with her things, there was only one other person who could rescue Aya now.

Cloud

* * *

**Shit**

**Sephiroth's got Aya.**

**What's he gonna do to her?**

**And what was all that about breeding a whole host of genetically engineered Super Soldiers?**

**Find out in the next thrilling instalment of Bulletproof Heart**

**Watching: Advent Children Complete (again), Listening to: Gackt – Redemption, Thought of the day: DINNER NOM!**


	17. Would You Like a Treatment?

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**I love the way that your heart breaks**

**With every injustice and deadly fate**

**Praying it all be new**

**And living like it all depends on you**

**Here you are down on your knees again**

**Trying to find air to breathe again**

**And only surrender will help you now**

**I love you please see and believe again**

**

* * *

**

When I came to again I was strapped to a lab table, that same lab table I'd been strapped to before only this was different, Sephiroth was standing at my side with my hand in his,

"You're awake beloved" I wrenched my hand from his grip,

""Let me out of here you sick fuck!" I screamed,

"You were going to be Sensei's pride and glory until you left, I will finish his work" someone was muttering,

"You have been chosen by mother to aid me in my quest to rid the cosmos of fools like Rufus Shin Ra you should be happy Aya" Sephiroth said, but

"Let me go and I'll show you just how happy I am" I threatened

"Doctor pull the switch" the 'Doctor' pulled the switch and my body was racked with pain once more as I felt that stuff flowing into my veins again and my body tried to fight of this malevolent intruder

"Don't fight it, embrace it, embrace Mother and you'll be just like me" the voice said again

"I'll never be like you! NEVER!"

"Doctor up the dosage"

Everything went black again

* * *

**-3****rd**** Person-**

The moment Vincent arrived in 7th Heaven with Aya's things Cloud knew what needed to be done; Sephiroth wouldn't get away with this.

If Aya couldn't help herself then Cloud would help her, and if that meant taking care of Sephiroth once and for all then he'd do it.

Just in case she'd been successful in getting rid of him herself, although he doubted it, Cloud decided to check Aeris' church first before heading out to Nibelheim, of course she wasn't there she was in trouble and Cloud was dilly dallying again, but this time he'd get there before it was too late, passing Zack's buster sword Cloud was struck with an idea. Taking it out of the ground he brought it to Aeris' church and coated the sword in her healing water,

"Let's go, Aya needs our help" Cloud said putting the sword in the holster on his back and racing his bike towards Nibelheim, "I'm coming Aya, just hang on"

* * *

**Go Cloud Go!**

**Aya's in a lot of trouble huh?**

**Strapped to a lab table and Sephiroth wants to breed with her**

**Ew**

**Unless you're a Sephi fan-girl in which case … yay … maybe? **

**Hana, Kaya, Kayleigh and Shereen my beta readers :)**

**Watching: Queen of the Damned, Listening to: Glee Cast – The Boy is Mine, Thought of the day: We're getting close to the end now**


	18. The Memories of Lucrecia Crescent

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Father Johnson went to the crossroads**

**So the legend goes**

**He lived with his guitar**

**And the devil took his soul**

**The devil took his soul**

**

* * *

**

It took four days to get to Nibelheim from Edge, and for those four days I didn't take a break, and I hardly slept.

Aya was the only thing that mattered, getting her home safely was my top priority, and I didn't care about myself

##

_"She was at the crystal caves, she'd found a lead on some of Lucrecia's work and had gone there to find them" Vincent said handing me her Sai and gunblade, "that's when he showed up. I couldn't stop him and I don't think Aya could either, these were all I could find. _

_I knew I had to come to you right away, you're the only person who can stop him now; god knows what he's doing to her out there"_

_"He wants to finish Hojo's experiment, he said so himself" I said, _

_"What do you mean finish the experiment?" Tifa asked anxiously_

_"He wants to make her just like him and then carry out his twisted mission. He wants to destroy the planet Tifa and he wants Aya to help him"_

_"She'll never help him though!" _

_"That's why he wants to 'finish' the experiment. He figures if he finishes what Hojo started then she'll be just like him and want what he wants" Vincent explained,_

_"But she won't be like him even if he finishes the experiment!" Tifa protested_

_"We know" both Vincent and I said, _

_"That's why we have to get her out of there because if he realises she isn't like him he'll kill her. Or brainwash her into thinking he was right all along and we were keeping her from him. She'll want to destroy the planet" I said,_

_"We have to get her out of there!" Tifa said pulling on her gloves _

_"No, you stay here. I'll go" _

_"But Cloud –"_

_"Cloud is the only one to ever face up to Sephiroth and therefore the only one with a chance of getting her back safely" Vincent explained,_

_"Tifa you need to call Shin Ra and tell Rufus what's going on. He needs to know" _

##

"I just hope I get there in time" I thought aloud

* * *

**-Normal POV-**

I don't know how many days passed in that place.

I was slipping in and out of consciousness that often I couldn't tell if I'd been there for hours, days, or even weeks. Nothing made sense anymore, in my waking hours I searched desperately for a means to escape, but there were no guards coming to take me to and from 'treatments' or bringing me food.

It was just Him, the Doctor supervising and me, and I had no way of escaping.

But the thing that made the least sense to me where the dreams I kept having, they weren't anything I'd ever seen or done before in my life. There were no familiar faces and I could never make out the names, I thought once that I saw Rufus and I tried to run to him but my legs just wouldn't move.

I woke one day with a blinding light in my eye, "what the hell!" I struggled but couldn't get free, I was strapped down,

"Sephiroth-Sama said until the procedures are finished to keep you restrained" the Doctor with the little torch said,

"I recognise you" I spat, "you're Hojo's assistant, Daniel"

"I'm flattered you remember be Aayma-Dono"

"Don't be, when I get out of here, I'm coming for your ass"

"Don't mind the threats, she's been brainwashed by an Eco-Terrorist group who wish to keep her from me and hinder us from completing Mother's great work"

"Mother Schmother it's Jenova's friggen head you're so worked up about!"

"As you can see Doctor they've completely brainwashed her"

"After the procedures are finished you need not worry Sephiroth-Sama" Daniel said,

"Great ignore me that'll make me shut up for sure" I said sarcastically

"Here this will help you sleep" Sephiroth injected me with something, I guessed a sedative and within seconds I was out and the strange dreams started again.

_I was defiantly in the Shin Ra manor but it wasn't as run down as it was when I was getting my 'treatments' it looked almost brand new,_

_"Are we ready to begin?" someone asked _

_"Yes" I heard myself say but it didn't sound like me, I looked down at my hands, they weren't mine, as I looked around I realised where I was and what was happening._

_With everything I'd been researching for the past month and being back in the Manor again all that negative energy had somehow affected me and I was having flashbacks to Lucrecia's work that's why my voice didn't sound right and my hands weren't my own,_

_"I'm Lucrecia" my own voice said, "These are _her_ memories" _

* * *

**I'm gonna stop it there cause the next chapter is the last one and it's a big one.**

**I got this done so quickly **

**I actually amaze myself**

**Again this is Hana, Kaya, Kayleigh and Shereen my beta readers :)**

**Watching: nothing, Listening to: nothing, Thought of the day: Sunday's are such a drag**


	19. So It Is

**Disclaimer:** Any and all characters or w/e you recognise from the game/movie don't belong to me they belong to Square Enix and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aya _does_ belong to me :3

* * *

**Back off**

**Take you on**

**Headstrong**

**Take on anyone**

**I know that you are wrong**

**Headstrong**

**Headstrong**

**

* * *

**

I could feel the sunlight on my face, and even though my eyes were shut I could 'see' the light in the room, I rolled over in the bed trying to get back to sleep,

"Stupid cheap curtains" I muttered stretching, when I opened my eyes I remembered I wasn't at home anymore, I was in Nibelheim and this wasn't my cosy bed in 7th Heaven this was the Shin Ra manor, "but this is still a bed" I sat up and threw my legs over the edge, someone had changed me into a black leather cat suit similar to the ones Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo wore last year, the room was different too.

Things that couldn't possibly move seemed to, I could count the particles of dust in the small sliver of light coming through the old tattered curtains that hung over the large window, "I must be upstairs" I concluded.

I'd never been upstairs in the manor before, only in the lab and that small room they held me in last time, I was alerted to someone's presence as booted footsteps drew closer and closer, the door opened and my body went into overdrive all my senses were heightened but that wasn't the only thing,

"Beloved" Sephiroth came over and placed a hand on my face and even though I hated him with every fibre in my body I had to stop myself from jumping him and ripping off all his clothes,

"What did you do to me?"

"I know it's a big transition from your old life beloved but we have lost time to make up and the Doctor thought some hormone injections would aid us. Don't be angry" he smiled kindly at me,

"Hormone injections" I echoed, "well that would explain a lot"

"Don't worry Beloved you'll get used to it in time" Sephiroth moved his hand from my face and tried to place it on my waist but I grabbed it,

"Don't think so" I sneered twisting his arm,

"Beloved"

"Don't call me that, didn't I make it clear last time? Not with a forty foot barge pole with the cure for Geo Stigma on the end!" I lifted my leg and brought my foot down hard on Sephiroth's shoulder, "I'll NEVER be your _beloved_! I'm my own damn woman!"

I took that opportunity to leg it out of the room as fast as I could, which was surprisingly faster than I'd ever been able to run before, I ran through the lab ripping machines down from the walls toppling others and generally making sure none of it could ever be used again.

There must have been water somewhere in that lab because after toppling not even half of the machines a fire started close to the machine I had been hooked up to, "time to go!" I sprinted out of the lab and followed my legs out of the building, "muscle memory, I love you!" I cried once I'd gotten out,

"Aya" someone yelled, I turned around and there was Cloud running towards me,

"CLOUD" I had never been so happy to see him in all my life, "I knew I wasn't crazy!"

"Really not the time to gloat Aya" Cloud said pointing behind me to where Sephiroth was coming out of the now flaming building,

"Cloud how nice to see you again" he sneered, "I'll ask you once, hand her over and no harm will come to you"

"Oh my actual God" I threw my hands up in the air, "Listen very carefully I am not now, nor have I ever been, or will I ever be YOURS!" I yelled, "I'm going to put an end to you once and for all!"

"With what? You're weaponless my dear"

"No she's not" Cloud threw me Zack's old Buster Sword,

"Let's do this Zack" I charged at Sephiroth but he dodged my attack,

"I don't want to fight you beloved"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" I screamed, "I'm gonna cut your dick off!" I charged him again and managed to land a good blow to his shoulder, the same one I'd brought my foot down on so hard, making him drop his Masume as blood came pouring out of the wound,

"How" he asked,

"The cure for Geo Stigma" I said charging up all my energy and thrusting the sword through his heart.

I watched as blood poured out of his wound and he slowly evaporated in the same way I'd seen Kadaj evaporate into the lifestream last year, it was finally over, "hey Cloud?"

"Yeah"

"I'm ready to go home now"

"Good because you look ridiculous"

"I feel ridiculous, I mean it's what the middle of July and I'm wearing black PVC"

"It's the 3rd of August actually" Cloud said as I climbed on the back of his bike

"Shit really?"

"Yeah"

"Then we're homeward bound and step on it!"

I could hear the faint sound of a helicopter in the distance, and sure enough on the horizon there was a Shin Ra helicopter, "tell me Rufus isn't on that helicopter" I turned to Cloud,

"I didn't know there was one coming; Reno must have decided to come himself" Cloud said honestly, "you know he likes you right?"

"Don't even start!" I warned, "Anyway after what I've done? I doubt anyone likes me much anymore"

"You were doing it because you were scared" I shot him a glare, "oh please I know you Aya and even if you won't admit it you were scared. But you were also doing it for the same reason I left last year"

"Like Barrett says, how are you supposed to protect your family if you can't look after yourself" Cloud nodded,

"You know Marlene does a scary good impression of Barrett" he said changing the subject

"Yeah she showed me, it's oddly accurate"

The helicopter finally landed and Rude jumped out to help us load Cloud's bike into the back and he and Cloud then shoved me into the cockpit with Reno,

"You look better" I said rubbing my arm awkwardly, "how's your nose?"

"You're not the first person to break it, yo" he smiled,

"And your ribs" I asked feeling slightly better now,

"You're not so tough yo"

"You lie!" I punched him lightly on the arm, "but I'm glad you aren't dead, it would really suck 'cause I guess … I like you … or something. If you tell anyone I was this nice I will end you!" I threatened,

"I swear yo"

* * *

When we finally got back within driving distance of Edge Reno landed and once more Rude helped us get the bike out of the back.

I waved as they took off having promised Reno we could make a go at being "Reno and Aya" I felt I should at least try to be nice to him,

"Alright then one more thing to do and then we can finally go home" I said climbing on the back of Cloud's bike and driving to where Zack's sword was supposed to be, putting it back in the ground I smiled, "thanks for all the help, couldn't have done it without you"

"No problem kid" I heard Zack's voice in my ear and I smiled,

"We should find you a sack or something" Cloud joked, "you're gonna scare people"

"Yeah well by the fact that I have red hair not silver I think I may avoid being burnt at the stake"

When we got back to 7th Heaven Tifa and the kids were waiting on the back step since Cloud had phoned when we were putting Zack's sword back, the kids leapt to their feet and ran at me knocking me off my feet,

"We're so glad you're back!"

"I'm glad to be back as well you guys, I'm home again and I promise I'll never leave again"

* * *

Later in the week after I'd finally got used to the new senses I was finally allowed to start answering the phone again, I still wasn't quite used to the heightened hormones though and so when Reno came over he wasn't allowed to touch me not that it mattered all he had to do was smile and I was trying to get his shirt off, Tifa had thusly banned us from being alone.

But one day she had to go out, Cloud was on a delivery to the Chocobo Farm and the kids were at their friends for a play date leaving Reno and I alone in the house,

"Are you sure you're alright around me yo?" Reno asked, he was sitting at the kitchen table and I was sitting on top of one of the counters,

"I'm fine, just as long as you stay over there" I said,

"It's just weird yo I never thought I'd have a problem with a girl trying to rip my clothes off"

"But when it's hormone injections and freaky eyes it's a boner killer?" I asked,

"Nah your eyes are cool, I just feel like I'm taking advantage yo" he smiled and a chill ran down my spine,

"You're not trust me"

"Then why can't we –" Reno didn't get to finish his sentence since I clamped my mouth over his,

"Upstairs, now" I commanded dragging him by the arm up to my room and then shutting the door behind me with my foot,

"Are you sure yo?"

"I'm sure!"

Reno pushed me against the wall and I wrapped my legs around his waist to support myself.

He kissed me harshly on the mouth as I ran my nails down his chest prompting him to let out a low growl that vibrated through both our bodies.

I laced my fingers in his hair undoing his ponytail and giving sharp tugs every so often as his hungry kisses found the crook of my neck making me groan and throw my head back.

His hands moved from roving my body to push my skirt up above my thighs as I pressed my body harder into his.

My own hands moved out of his hair and down to his trousers, I managed to get his zip undone but I was apparently taking too long as he undid the button and pushed them down with his spare hand which then moved to pull my t-shirt over my head and unhook my bra which I let fall off leaving my upper body completely exposed to him.

His hands found their way to my breasts and he began to move then in his calloused hands every so often pinching an already hard nipple just to make me cry out, he seemed to enjoy the noise more than anything.

It wasn't long before he captured my mouth again in another hungry kiss as he slid a hand down my side and into my pants his fingers moving inside me to a rhythm all his own, I moved my own hand into his boxers and tried to match his rhythm failing and then finding my own until he stopped me by placing a hand on my arm and removing it from his boxers.

He removed his own hand from my pants which he then slid down my legs to dangle on the edge of one of my boots, after leaving them there he took off his own boxers, removing a condom from its packet with his teeth I helped make sure it was on.

He carefully slid himself inside me and for a moment neither of us moved just felt each other then he started to move, slowly at first then he picked up speed.

I dug my nail into his back and dragged them down as he got faster and harder and his hands moved all over my body. I felt myself getting closer and closer to the edge,

"S-stop" I managed to breathe,

"What?"

"Stop"

"Am I hurting you?" Reno asked concerned,

"No, just trust me I know what I'm doing. I used to do this for a living" Reno stopped moving for a minute, "ok go, slowly"

He started again slowly and began to pick up momentum and once more I felt myself slipping over the edge and once more I stopped him,

"What the hell yo"

"I told you, trust me" so once more he stopped and we waited for a minute, and then again we started slowly and this time neither of us could hold on much longer as I wrapped my thighs tighter around his middle prompting him to go deeper.

Sooner than I would have liked I came with a loud cry and a shiver that made every part of my body feel like an electric current had been passed through it. Seconds after I felt Reno come inside me, neither of us spoke for a second, then from downstairs,

"Aya, Reno, I'm back!" Tifa called,

"Shit" Reno stepped back and let me get down from the wall, I pulled my pants up and dressed quickly as Reno disposed of the condom and put his clothes back on,

"Oh hey that was quick!" I tried to make my voice sound as normal as I could once Reno and I got back down the stairs,

"Aya" Tifa's voice took on that motherly tone when she just knows someone's been up to something,

"Tifa"

"I thought I said you two weren't supposed to be alone?"

"You did but we're adults, we can control ourselves" I reasoned,

"Clearly not judging by the mark on your neck"

"Dammit all" I cursed,

"Were you at least careful?" Tifa sighed

"Yeah we were"

"Uh huh, anyway Aya there's someone here to see you"

"How does she know these things yo?" Reno asked

"Well the mark on my neck might have given it away"

"Shit sorry yo"

"Eh whatever, come on apparently there's someone here to see me" I grabbed Reno's hand and lead him out into the bar where Cloud was talking to someone I couldn't quite see,

"Nice mark Aya, control your hormones much?" He laughed

"Bite me Strife"

"I would but you might jump me"

"You wish" I turned to see who he was talking to, "Tseng" I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, "what do you want?"

"The President has sent me to tell you how sorry he is about everything and wants nothing more than for your forgiveness"

"If Rufus is so damned sorry he can come here and tell me himself!" I yelled, "Now get the hell out of here! Don't make me make you"

Tseng said nothing just bowed his head towards Cloud and left the bar,

"You should give the boss a break yo, he really is sorry" Reno said, I dropped his hand,

"You're lucky I like you or you'd be following him you know" I said to Reno,

"What? What did I do yo?"

"You said she should give Rufus a chance" Cloud clarified,

"But –" I stopped Reno dead with a glare, "I'll be quiet yo"

* * *

The next day I was looking after the bar while Tifa did inventory and Cloud helped, the kids were watching TV in the back and I was toying with the idea of sending them to get ice cream and calling Reno, that was until the door opened and Rufus walked in with Reno,

"Reno?" I asked, "What is he doing here?"

"Don't blame Reno, he said he was coming to see you and I asked to come along" Rufus got down on his knees in front of the bar and bowed his head, "I am ashamed that I knew about what Hojo was up to and I didn't put a stop to it.

It pains me that he did what he did to you and because of it Sephiroth was able to return and cause you more pain.

I know you'll never forgive me but can you at least accept that I am truly sorry?"

I jumped over the bar and stood in front of Rufus,

"You know you look really stupid down there, won't your nice white suit get all dirty?" I teased lightly, and extended my hand to him, "I guess I'll need that card back"

"I guess you will" Rufus said accepting my hand and standing up, "well I'll leave you two alone"

"Tifa says we're not allowed to be alone" I said childisly, "not since … the last day"

"I see, well know that you can be alone any time you like at Shin Ra, your room is still empty" Rufus offered before leaving the bar,

"What just happened yo?" Reno was very confused

"We're friends again and I'm going back to work with you or didn't you catch that? You are a bit slow after all, you did say so yourself"

"You can be one mean chick you know that?" Reno said pouting,

"With freaky eyes that get you off" I joked giving him a brief kiss on the lips,

"You two have to be the weirdest couple ever" Tifa said from the doorway, she and Cloud had obviously been eavesdropping,

"So it is" I laughed

* * *

**And that's it!**

**The final chapter of Bulletproof Heart**

**It's almost sad **

**But I'm glad I rewrote it all**

**Thanks to Hana, Kaya, Kayleigh and Shereen who just couldn't get enough of this rewrite and all of you for reading  
**

**:) **

**Watching: nothing, Listening to: Adam Lambert – Music Again, Thought of the day: Now then what's next?**


End file.
